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Captain Robert Bennet Forbes (September 18, 1804 - November 23, 1889), was a sea-captain, China merchant, ship-owner, and writer. He was born in Jamaica Plain near Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Ralph Bennet and Margaret (Perkins) Forbes, and brother of John Murray Forbes. As a member of the Forbes family of Boston, much of his wealth was derived from the opium and China trade of the 19th century. Indeed, he played a prominent role in the outbreak of the Opium War. Despite the ethical problems of dealing in Opium, he was known to engage in humanitarian activities, such as commandeering the U.S.S. Jamestown to send food to Irish famine sufferers in 1847.
His writings, most of them pamphlets, include:
- Remarks on China and the China Trade (1844)
- The Voyage of the Jamestown, etc. (1874)
- 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 Lifeboat and other Life-saving Inventions (1880)
- New Rig for Steamers (1883)
- Notes on Navigation (1884)
- Loss of Life and Property in the Fisheries (1884)
- Notes on Ships of the Past (1888).
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