Background

Robert Bennet Forbes was born in Jamaica Plain near Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Ralph Bennet and Margaret (Perkins) Forbes, and brother of John Murray Forbes. The family was of Scottish descent on both sides.

Education

His education included a year in France and three years at Milton Academy.

Career

Upon his father’s failure in business, he entered the employ of his uncles, James and Thomas H. Perkins, outstanding Boston merchants whose interest in him contributed to his advancement.

At thirteen years of age, he sailed before the mast in one of their ships for China. At twenty he received command of another Perkins ship for a three-years’ voyage around the world.

In 1830, when Perkins & Company, at Canton merged with Russell & Company, to form the most powerful American house in China, Forbes secured their lucrative storeship at Lintin.

His New England conscience excused the opium trade as no worse than dealing in ardent spirits. He returned to Boston, married Rose Green Smith on January 20, 1834, and was prospering as consignee of China cargoes for Russell & Company.

Then, nearly ruined in the panic of 1837, he went out to Canton again to recoup his fortunes, arriving in time to play a prominent role in the outbreak of the Opium War.

In March 1839, the Chinese commissioner demanded the destruction of all opium at Canton. Two months later, Forbes became head of Russell & Company, in place of John C. Green who returned home.

Determined to boycott the Canton hongs, the British merchants retired to Macao and Hong Kong, urging Forbes to join them. He says that he replied that “I had not come to China for my health or pleasure, and that I should remain at my post as long as I could sell a yard of goods or buy a pound of tea. ” As a result, the Americans did a rushing business, not only in their own goods but British as well, until their real blockade was clamped down in June 1840.

Forbes returned to Boston, having made up all his losses, with a “handsome profit” to boot. He was in China again as head of Russell & Company from 1849 to 1851, serving also as American and French vice-consul. By that time, he had entered the third state of his career, that of ship-owner.

Altogether, he was connected with sixty-eight vessels as part owner or supervisor of construction.

He energetically supported coastal life-saving work, nautical training-ships and sailors’ homes. During the Civil War, he organized a short-lived “Coast Guard” unit; supervised the construction of nine gunboats, some of which were with Farragut at New Orleans; assisted his brother in the English mission to check the Laird rams; and lost money building warships for the Union navy on his own account.

He resided in Boston, with a summer home at Milton nearby. Until the end, he was a prolific writer in his many fields of interest. His writings, most of them pamphlets, include : Remarks on China and the China Trade; The Voyage of the Jamestown, etc. ; An Appeal to Merchants and Ship Owners, on the Subject of Seamen (1854); On the Establishment of a Line of Mail Steamers to China (1855); Remarks on Ocean Steam Navigation (1855); Remarks on Magnetism and Local Attraction (1875); The Forbes Rig (1862); Means for Making the Highways of the Ocean more Safe (1867); Personal Reminiscences (1876; 3rd ed. , 1892); The IJfeboat and other Life-saving Inventions (1880); New Rig for Steamers (1883); Notes on Navigation (1884); Loss of Life and Property in the Fisheries (1884); and Notes on Ships of the Past (1888).

Achievements

• He invented the “Forbes rig” for sailing vessels, described as “a pole topmast fiddling abaft, ” later improved and patented by Howes. He was among the first to have faith in the screw propeller and iron hulls. In 1844-45, he was a principal owner of three-scrcw, auxiliary steamers, the Midas and Edith, pioneers in Chinese and Indian waters, and the Massachusetts, a transatlantic packet. A tug, named for him, had the first iron hull built in New England. He sent small iron steamers to China, California and South America on the decks of sailing vessels, an idea as ingenious as his earlier sending of ice to the Orient. He was always interested in humanitarian work. In 1847, he commanded the U. S. S. Jamestown, loaned to carry contributions from Boston to the Irish famine sufferers. Fie jumped into the sea to make daring rescues after a collision in 1849.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Shipwreck by Lightning: Papers Relative to Harris's Lightning Conductors (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Shipwreck by Lightning: Papers Relative to H...)

  • The Voyage of the Jamestown On Her Errand of Mercy

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Loss Of The Essex, Destroyed By A Whale: With An Account Of The Sufferings Of The Crew, Who Were Driven To Extreme Measures To Sustain Life

    ( This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923....)

  • Remarks On China And The China Trade...

    ( This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923....)

  • Lifeboats, projectiles and other means for saving life

Personality

He is said to have had unusual personal charm. His pictures show a man of medium height with a kindly face, less severe in its lines than his brother’s. In his youth he was known as “Black Ben, ” but by thirty he was gray. During his last years, he was deaf and in poor health.

Interests

• He was always an enthusiastic sportsman. He was “commodore” of the first informal yacht club in Boston, and at sixty-five he took up fox hunting at Pau.

Connections

He returned to Boston, married Rose Green Smith on January 20, 1834, and was prospering as consignee of China cargoes for Russell & Company.

Father:

Ralph Bennet Forbes

Mother:

Margaret (Perkins) Forbes

Wife:

Rose Green Smith

Uncle:

James Perkins

Uncle:

Thomas H. Perkins

References

• Personal Reminiscences 1882