Coffin ship (insurance)

Last updated

A coffin ship is any ship that has been overinsured and is therefore worth more to its owners sunk than afloat. These were hazardous places to work in the days before effective maritime safety regulation. They were generally eliminated in the 1870s with the success of reforms championed by British MP Samuel Plimsoll. [1] [2]

Contents

Many overloaded overinsured ships in the days of wooden sailing ships were old ships riddled with wood rot and woodworm and shipworm, repainted and renamed and falsely stated to be new ships. There were over 2,000 cases of sailors who had signed on as crew for a ship being tried in court for refusing to board upon seeing its condition. [3] [4] Plimsoll stated in the British Parliament, "The Secretary of Lloyd's tells a friend of mine that he does not know a single ship which has been broken up voluntarily by the owners in the course of 30 years on account of its being worn out". [5]

In 1977, the ship Lucona sank in the Indian Ocean as a result of a time bomb, which had been planted by Udo Proksch, the owner of the cargo, so that he could fraudulently collect the insurance money. The cargo was claimed to consist of a disassembled uranium processing plant but in fact consisted of worthless scrap, and 6 of the 12 crew members died. [6]

The poem The Ballad of the Bolivar by Rudyard Kipling, first published in 1892, describes the successful voyage of the unseaworthy freighter Bolivar from Sunderland in northern England to Bilbao in Spain. The ship is described as a rusted, rotten and leaking coffin ship and pokes fun at the vessel's owners for the sailors' success at bringing it across the Bay of Biscay in stormy conditions.

The 1900 Dutch play Op hoop van zegen by the socialist playwright Herman Heijermans depicts a ruthless shipowner in a small Dutch village sending an unsound fishing boat out into a stormy sea, with the deliberate result that it becomes lost with all hands with the owner pocketing the insurance money. The play is considered a classic of Dutch theatre and literature and was adapted to film four times.

The BBC television drama series The Onedin Line details coffin ship fraud in 1972 episode S02E07 "Coffin Ship", and presents Samuel Plimsoll and his efforts in 1973 episode S03E06 "Danger Level" as well.

Leon Uris also refers to coffin ships in his novel Redemption .

The Death Ship (German title: Das Totenschiff) is a novel by the pseudonymous author known as B. Traven which deals with sailors working on a ship which the owners want to sink.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Plimsoll</span> British politician and social reformer

Samuel Plimsoll was a British politician and social reformer, now best remembered for having devised the Plimsoll line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coffin ship</span> Ships that carried Irish and Scottish migrants during the 19th century

A coffin ship is a popular idiom used to describe the ships that carried Irish migrants escaping the Great Irish Famine and Highlanders displaced by the Highland Clearances.

<i>Zong</i> massacre 1781 mass killing of enslaved Africans

The Zong massacre was a mass killing of more than 130 enslaved African people by the crew of the British slave ship Zong on and in the days following 29 November 1781. The William Gregson slave-trading syndicate, based in Liverpool, owned the ship as part of the Atlantic slave trade. As was common business practice, they had taken out insurance on the lives of the enslaved Africans as cargo. According to the crew, when the ship ran low on drinking water following navigational mistakes, the crew threw enslaved Africans overboard.

Udo Proksch was an Austrian businessman and industrialist. In 1991, he was convicted of the murder of six people as part of a major insurance fraud. Proksch died in prison.

<i>The Survivors of the Chancellor</i> Book by Jules Verne

The Survivors of the Chancellor: Diary of J. R. Kazallon, Passenger is an 1875 novel written by Jules Verne about the final voyage of a British sailing ship, the Chancellor, told from the perspective of one of its passengers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Load line (watercraft)</span> Legal limit to which a ship may be loaded

The load line, also known as Plimsoll line, indicates the legal limit to which a ship may be loaded for specific water types and temperatures in order to safely maintain buoyancy, particularly with regard to the hazard of waves that may arise. The load line is a waterline that corresponds to the maximum draft of the ship, thus yet another name, load waterline. Varying water temperatures will affect a ship's draft, because warm water is less dense than cold water, providing less buoyancy. In the same way, fresh water is less dense than salinated or seawater, with a similar lessening effect upon buoyancy. The rules for international load lines are defined by the International Convention on Load Lines from 1966. For inland water transport regional, national or local rules apply.

SS <i>City of Venice</i> Passenger vessel from 1924 to 1943

SS City of Venice was an intermediate ocean liner that was launched in 1924 in Northern Ireland for Ellerman Lines. In the Second World War she was a troop ship. In 1943 a U-boat sank her in the Mediterranean, killing 22 of the crew and troops aboard.

SS <i>London</i> (1864) British steamship that sank in 1866

SS London was a British steamship that sank in the Bay of Biscay on 11 January 1866. The ship was travelling from Gravesend, England to Melbourne, Australia, when she began taking in water on 10 January, with 239 persons aboard. The ship was overloaded with cargo, and thus unseaworthy, and only 19 survivors were able to escape the foundering ship by lifeboat, leaving a death toll of 220.

MS <i>Georges Philippar</i> French ocean liner (1930–1932)

Georges Philippar was an ocean liner of the French Messageries Maritimes line that was built in 1930. On her maiden voyage in 1932 she caught fire and sank in the Gulf of Aden with the loss of 54 lives.

Lucona was a ship sunk in the Indian Ocean by a bomb on 23 January 1977.

Type N3 ship

Type N3-S ships were a Maritime Commission small coastal cargo ship design to meet urgent World War II shipping needs, with the first of the 109 N3, both steam and diesel, type hulls delivered in December 1942.

SS <i>Ilse L M Russ</i>

Ilse L.-M. Russ was a 1,600 GRT cargo ship that was built in 1926 by Flensburger Schiffbau Gesellschaft, Flensburg. She was seized by the Allies in May 1945 at Kiel, passed to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and renamed Empire Conqueror. In 1946, she was allocated to the Norwegian Government and renamed Ekornes. She was sold into merchant service in 1947 and renamed Elfrida. She served until December 1959 when she sprang a leak and sank off the coast of Norway.

SS <i>Ljusneälf</i>

Ljusneälf was a 1,391 GRT cargo ship that was built in 1917 as Tilburg by L Smit & Zoon, Kinderdijk for Dutch owners. She was sold to German owners in 1922 and renamed Ljusneälf. A sale in 1938 saw her renamed Hubert Schröder. She was seized by the Allies in April 1945, passed to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and renamed Empire Conquest.

Dollart was a 535 GRT coaster that was built in 1912 by Stettiner Oderwerke AG, Stettin, Germany for German owners. She was seized by the Allies in May 1945, passed to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and was renamed Empire Constancy. In 1947, she was sold into merchant service and renamed Polzeath. In 1951, she was sold to Turkey and renamed Meltem. Further sales saw her renamed Yener 9 in 1956 and Yarasli in 1959. She went missing in the Ionian Sea in January 1961.

Memel was a 1,102 GRT cargo ship that was built in 1925 as Reval by Schiffs-und Dockbauwerft Flender AG, Lübeck, Germany for German owners. A sale in 1934 saw her renamed Memel. She was seized by the Allies in May 1945, passed to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and was renamed Empire Constellation. In 1946, she was transferred to the Soviet Union and renamed Ivan Sechenov.[Note A]

SS <i>Pinnau</i>

Pinnau was a 1,198 GRT cargo ship that was built in 1922 by Nobiskrug Werft GmbH, Rendsburg, Germany for German owners. She was seized by the Allies in May 1945, passed to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and was renamed Empire Constructor. In 1947, she was sold into merchant service and renamed Estkon. She served until 1959 when she was scrapped.

Jean Marie was a 964 GRT coaster that was built in 1922 by F Schichau GmbH, Elbing, Germany as Tertia for German owners. A sale in 1925 saw her renamed Hornland. In 1926, a further sale saw her renamed Taube. She was seized by the Allies in May 1945, passed to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and was renamed Empire Contour. In 1946, she was transferred to Belgium and renamed Jean Marie. She was sold into merchant service, serving until 1951 when she sank after her cargo shifted.

HMAS <i>Mallina</i>

HMAS Mallina was a 3,213 GRT cargo ship built by Harland & Wolff, Belfast in 1909 as Mallina for the Australian United Steam Navigation Company for the Rockhampton to Sydney cargo route. She was requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy in 1914, as a store carrier and collier. She was returned to her owners in 1915. She was sold in 1935 to Machida Shokai Kisen Kaisha, Japan and renamed Seiko Maru, before being sold to Kita Nippon Kisen Kaisha and renamed Siberia Maru No. 3, which was later shortened to Siberian Maru. While steaming in the Sulu Sea, Philippines on 24 September 1944, she was attacked by American aircraft of Task Force 38 and sunk with the loss of 158 of the 2,382 people on board.

MV <i>Vinalines Queen</i>

MV Vinalines Queen was a bulk carrier of the Vietnam National Shipping Lines, or Vinalines. On its last voyage the ship was travelling from Indonesia to China with more than 54,000 tonnes of nickel ore. The ship disappeared on 25 December 2011 and its fate was initially unknown. On 30 December 2011 a single survivor of its 23-member crew, Dau Ngoc Hung, was found by the British ship London Courage, after floating with a rescue vest for 5 days. He reported that the ship sank quickly in the early hours of the morning after capsizing to the left. It sank after passing the island of Luzon in very bad weather conditions in waters up to 5,000 metres (16,000 ft) deep.

MV Asia South Korea was a Philippines passenger ferry owned by Trans-Asia Shipping Lines that sank off Bantayan Island in Cebu province on 23 December 1999. It was discovered that the number of passengers aboard exceeded the total capacity of the 27-year-old ferry.

References

  1. ↑ Plimsoll Line and Coffin Ships
  2. ↑ Jones Nicolette. 2006. The Plimsoll Sensation : The Great Campaign to Save Lives at Sea. London: Little Brown.
  3. ↑ Coast (TV series), episode "Hull to London"
  4. ↑ "Merchant Shipping Act". Spartacus Educational . SchoolNet. Archived from the original on 3 April 2013. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
  5. ↑ "Parliament — Breach of Order (Mr. Plimsoll)". Hansard, 22 July 1875. Millbank Systems. 22 July 1875. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
  6. ↑ "The Lucona Affair". Chicago Tribune . March 15, 1989.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.