biography
| name: |
Forbes, Robert Bennet
|
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1804–89)
|
| biography:
| Merchant and writer, born in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, USA. The brother of John Murray Forbes, at age 13 he entered the China-trade business of his two uncles, James and Thomas H Perkins, and stayed with the company when it merged to become Russell & Co (1830). In 1839 he became head of the company and ignored the British boycott of Canton during the Opium Wars. Owner of several ships, he supported innovations in marine safety and ship design that included the first iron-hulled tugboat. During the terrible famine of 1847, he personally commanded a ship that took food from Boston to Ireland. During the Civil War he organized a short-lived ‘Coast Guard’ A prolific pamphleteer, he wrote about the China trade and marine matters, and his memoirs are entitled Personal Reminiscences (1876, 3rd edn 1892). |
|
|
