Harpoon guns, the lost Greenland settlement, and penal colonies: George Manby's Arctic obsessions
Abstract George William Manby (1766–1854) was an English inventor best known for his idea of firing a line from shore to a wrecked ship so that the crew might be saved by means of a breeches-buoy. Around 1819 he turned his attention to new typesof whaling harpoons, bothahand harpoon andagun harpoon....
| Published in: | Polar Record |
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| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
2001
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| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247400017046 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247400017046 |
| Summary: | Abstract George William Manby (1766–1854) was an English inventor best known for his idea of firing a line from shore to a wrecked ship so that the crew might be saved by means of a breeches-buoy. Around 1819 he turned his attention to new typesof whaling harpoons, bothahand harpoon andagun harpoon. In 1821 he went on a voyage to the Greenland whaling grounds on board Baffin , Captain William Scoresby Jr, with the aim of trying out his inventions, but the experiments were foiled by the reluctance of the crew to cooperate. As a result of that voyage, Manby espoused three ideas that he pursued obsessively for the rest of his life: that there might still be Norse survivors in the so-called ‘Lost Colony’ in East Greenland; that Britain should claim the area of East Greenland north of the area claimed by Denmark; and that this area should be developed as a penal colony. |
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