300 ANNUAL REGISTER, ISl*. 



from the Mother Country. Con- 

 sequently a letter was written to 

 the insurance broker, dated 19th 

 of June, desiring him to alter the 

 insurance, as the ship was not to 

 return to Old Spain, but to some 

 port in the North, for which slie 

 could more easily procure a cargo. 

 She was more than a month taking 

 in her cargo at the Havannah, and 

 waited three days for convoy. In 

 the gulph of Florida she met with 

 a hurricane, and was wrecked on 

 the •25th of October, in company 

 with 150 other ships, five only of 

 her crew escaj)ing. It was proved 

 by the defendant that after the 

 31st of August commenced the 

 winter risks, for which a higher 

 premium ttian eight guineas was 

 paid. 



. Mr. Park, for the defendant, ad- 

 mitted the lenglhenment of the 

 risk by the permis>ion indorst^d 

 upon the |)olicy, but contended 

 that it did not permit an alteration 

 of the terminus a (juo of the in- 

 surance, which was still from Vera 

 Cruz and the Havannah, and not 

 directly from the Havannah, and 

 that it was not comtemplated tiiat 

 the ship had not then her cargo on 

 board. 



Lord Ellenborough held that 

 the underwriters must be taken to 

 have contemplated the possibility 

 of all the political changes whith 

 had taken place, and which might 

 take place with relation to Spain ; 

 and that they had consented to the 

 ship's procuring a cargo for Eng- 

 land, if she could not get one for 

 Spain. It had been proved, that' 

 it was impossible to get a cargo 

 at all for the latter country, and 

 sooner for the former. The Jury 

 would say whether the waiting 

 three days for convoy was not pro- 



tected by the liberty in the policy 

 to join convoy. They found their 

 verdict for the plaintiff. 



Same v. Reid. — This was an ac- 

 tion, under' the same circum- 

 stances, upon the ship, 



Mr. Park, for the defendant, 

 contended, that the letter of the 

 19th of June did not convey to 

 the underwriters such information 

 as would induce them to turn a 

 summer risk into a winter one. 

 1 he liberty given by the policy 

 was to touch and unload ; and if 

 the underwriters had been in- 

 formed that the ship would have 

 run the chance of lying five months 

 at the Havannah, they would never 

 have undertaken the risk ; they 

 merel)' meant by the indorsement 

 on the policy to give the assured 

 full opportunity of changing their 

 de.>tination. 



Lord Llienborough laid it down, 

 that a policy of insurance con- 

 templated the performance of the 

 voyage with all reasonable expe- 

 dition ; but if a voyage were pro- 

 tracted to a subsequent year, if 

 this were done bond fide, the un- 

 derwriter would still be liable. He 

 remembered a case before Lord 

 Kenyon, where a ship not being 

 able to put into a port in the 

 north, actually came back to Eng- 

 land, and tried again the next 

 year, and the assured having used 

 no undue means to protract the 

 risk, the underwriter was held still 

 responsible. No doubt the pre- 

 sent became a winter risk ; but if 

 this were by no fault of the assured, 

 but by the extraordinary occur- 

 rences of events, to which the 

 assured was not contributory, or 

 over which he had no control, he 

 was still in a situation to recover 



