LLOYD'S. ] 05 



In the former case a ship which has run out of all its classes the vessel is usually 

 fit for nothing more than a river trip, and ought really to be broken up. It is then 

 that the disreputable shipowner steps ia and purchases her. Happy is it for its poor 

 crew if she does not prove their coffin ! 



It may be asked, as Lloyd's will now have nothing to do with such a rotten tub, 

 How does the owner get anyone to insure it? It is generally done by mutual insurance 

 clubs formed among these very owners, though not exclusively. Plimsoll says : " It almost 



INTERIOR OF LLOYD S. 



seems as if there was a race who should lose his ships first on the formation of a new 

 club, so great are the sums the members are called upon to pay as premium ; " and 

 such clubs are constantly failing. 



To be classed A 1 in anything is good, and, as applied to a ship at Lloyd's, means, 

 as we all know, that the vessel is first-class in every particular. But what is Lloyd's ? 

 Many readers would find it difficult to give a clear answer to this query. The secretary 

 of that institution told M. Esquiros, when that distinguished writer was visiting England, 

 that he received many business letters addressed to " Mr. Lloyd," and we all know there 

 was long, in fact, a celebrated Lloyd's Coffee-house in the City, where the merchants 

 interested in maritime matters used to congregate. A poem, " The Wealthy Shopkeeper, 

 or Charitable Christian," published in 1700, alludes to the establishment, and the writer 

 adds, as an addendum, that the London merchant at that time never missed "resorting 



