132 INSURANCE OF FISHING-BOATS. 



may be undergoing repairs, and who therefore cannot 

 receive any benefit, for the repair of damages which may 

 be sustained by vessels at sea. When this rule was first 

 promulgated and acted upon, it was believed by many 

 persons to be of a suicidal nature, and that it would soon 

 bring to grief the company with which it originated. 

 Amongst other things, it was said that owners, whose 

 vessels might be in port during bad weather, would, of 

 course, declare their vessels " off risk," and that thus a 

 very heavy .responsibility would be thrown upon owners 

 whose vessels might be at sea at the time. But these evil 

 forebodings have not been realised. On the contrary, the 

 working of this rule has been attended with triumphant 

 success. The experience of those who have watched its 

 working for several years teaches them that an owner does 

 not declare his vessel "off risk" until she be actually 

 hauled up in a place of safety and that, too, for a con- 

 siderable period because otherwise, if while in the harbour 

 she be damaged by a passing steam-tug or from any other 

 cause, he would have no claim for compensation against 

 the company. Vessels, and especially small vessels, are 

 always liable to casualties, even when at their moorings in 

 a harbour ; and boat-owners fully understand the risk they 

 run, and seldom permit their craft to remain uninsured. 

 Moreover, experience teaches this fact, that no boat-owner 

 gives notice of " off risk " merely for the purpose of avoid- 

 ing the effects of a gale at sea at a time when his own 

 vessel, or one of his own vessels, happens to be in port, 

 because every seafaring man knows that when a gale is 

 blowing on shore there may be comparatively fine weather 

 upon the fishing-grounds at sea, and, on the other hand, 

 that, though it may be fair weather in port, there may be 

 heavy weather outside. Since the making of this rule by 



