three areas, but in varying degrees. It is as important as 

 navigation ha^sard in California where as mfiiny as 43 percent of 

 accidents were attributed to mechanical failure. New England 

 comes second with 27 percent of accidents caused by mechanicaJL 

 failure, and the Gulf Area third with only 12 percent. Weather, 

 as the principal cause of partial losses, is almost as important 

 as mechanical failure in New England, equally important as 

 mechajiical failure in the Gulf Area, but less important in 

 California. It will be noted that fire was the principal cause 

 of a very small portion of accidents in all three areas. More 

 detailed classification by the part of vessel damaged and 

 principal hazard, which appears in the same table 12 further 

 verifies the above findings. 



Finally, a multiple classification of partial losses on the 

 basis of all reported casual factors is shown in the bottom of 

 the same table 12. "Struck submerged object," without euiy 

 further expleination describing the circumstances of this type 

 of accident, occurred most frequently in the Gulf Area, with as 

 much as 56 percent of accidents attributed to such obscure 

 circumstances. Similar conditions caused 29 percent of acci- 

 dents in New England and only id percent in California. "Error 

 of crew" includes claims which were directly attributed to human 

 failure but also collision with another vessel or other similar 

 accidents which, in the Judgment of the researchers, might have 

 been the result of human error. Thus, as much as 2^ percent of 

 accidents were attributed to this cause in New England, 29 percent 

 in California, and I9 percent in the Gulf Area. Yet, in spite of 

 this liberal classification, human error, as a major cause of 

 accidents, may be understated. Human nature, being what it is, 

 has the tendency to understate in reporting accidents due to human 

 failure . Reports from marine surveyors and vessel owners them- 

 selves seem to confirm this contention. . It is to be noted that 

 "wear and tear", as a cause of accidents, occupied the first 

 position in California and was quite an important factor in 

 New England. 



2. Severity of hull insurance accidents . Frequency of 

 accident explains in part the unprofitable loss experience of 

 insurers. On the other hand, frequency of accident may be 

 misleading unless frequency is related to the amount of loss 

 pedd. 



The relation of frequency of claims and amount of paid loss 

 is shown in table 13. Petty claims of $500 or less constituted 

 47.0 percent of all claims in New England, i*-9.2 percent in the 

 Gulf Area, and only 28.0 percent in California. But the same 

 claims represented only k.l percent of all paid losses in New 

 England, k.2 percent in the Gulf Area, and as little as I.3 

 percent in California. At the other end of the distribution, 



65 



