The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1866-11-09
Thq lattg getus,
FRIDAY MORNING, NovEMBEa9, 1866. =.
iFrons the Temple Bar Nagazins.l
ZLLOVD'S.

thing very like it and they tell also Of tht
Bold Buccaneer speaking naany others, .lle
Of tho Lively Nancy being "spokcn' BY
many in turn. These and other ships are
in fact, speaking on all the oceans and seas
and although their language is a very quic
one, it is expressive for the immediate OBJ
ject in view. Dipping little deeper,
reader finds that the newspapers are lndebt
ed for this information to mysterious
being named Lloyd, whom nobody ever
sees,. but every one talks about ; who is re.
puted to keep coffee house, though no one
would know where to find it who keeps
List and a Register, but does not sci! any.
thing at his oofee-house, or entertain any
guests. -
The preliminary condition Of all this sup
ply of ship news is, that every ship must
have name. an appellation which will dis
tinpuish her from all other ships. The
necessity for this is felt for ships almost as
much as human beings, and has been ac-
kpowledged almost from the earliest times.
AS shipowner is under little or no con
troll in the matter, the variety Of names be-
comes something rather formidable. In
Roman Catholic countries the names Of
sainN are largely adopted as the names OF
ships-more generally, however, in past
times than at present. Among the forty or
fifty thousand vessels that now hoist the
British flag, penetrating into every sea and
almost every river in the world, either Tor
warlike demonstration or for peaceful com.
merce; what medley Of names We meet
with The surname and christian name OF
the ownor Of the ship; the christian names
of his wife, sons, and daughters, or OF his
sweetheart if he be a bachelor; the names OF
royal and high-born personagges the names
Of men who have rendered themselves t;t-
NOUS by deeds Of arms or services in states
manship the names of women who have
gathered a halo around them by their deeds
Of goodness all are among the items
open to The sponsors Of ships. And 50 are
the names Of jewels, stars, planets, plants,
birds, fishes, insects !; of oceans, seas, CULTS,
lakes, rivers Of countries, continents, ISL
ands, mountains, valleys; of volcanoes,
geysers, ayalanches, torrents, rapids, cata-
racts all are looked upon as fair game.
The characters in Shakspeare's plays sup
ply a goodly variety, as witness Macdutf
Othello, Desdemona, Hamlet, Ophelia, Ro-
meo, Juliet, King Lear, Cordelia, Cymbe-
line, Imogene, Portia, Prospero, Miranda,
Caliban, Oberon, Titania, Puck, Ariel, and
Hotspur. In similar way the characters
in popular novels, poems and songs have
been invited to the christening, What
may be called fancy names-the Flying
Foam, the Happy ggo-lucky, the saucy Jane,
the lightning Flash, the Good Intent, the
Little Wonder, and the like-are in great
request. All this is very we'll so long as
the owner is concerned only with his own
ship !; but when ho wishes to exchange
kindly services with his brother shipown-
ers, to give and receive information relating
to the wants and whereabouts of vessels at
sea, then it becomes matter of import
ance that confusion should be avoided in
the Identification Of the several ships. The
Victoria, for instance, is Of course, a very
good name for ship belonging to loyal
Englishman but what if there be ten,
twenty, or fifty ships of that name /? The
Victoria Of Liverpool is more precise but
the difficulty is not wholly removed even
now, for there is plurality of Victorias at
that famous port. If we were to say Mos
srs. Cotton & Bales merchant ship Victo-
rio Of Liverpool, the designation would be-
como too clumsy and lengthy for conyc-
nient use in signaling.
But how about Lloyd? Who is Lloyd Z
and what has he to do with ships andships'
names The truth is marine insurance is
the link of connection here Nearly all
ships belonging to the Mercantile Marine,
though none belonging to the Royal Navy,
arc insured against Che varied dangers of
tho seas, either by individual capitalists,
known as underwriters, or by joint stock
marine insurance companies During the
latter half ofthe last century, one Mr.. Lloyd
kept coffee house near the Royal Ex-
change, much frcqucated by city men, not
simply for the beverage which gave ita
namc, bnt as place Of meeting for the
transaction Of business We have many
such now-Garraway's, the Baltic, the Je.
rusalem, the South American, DC. One
room III this coffee house was appropriated
to tho use of a committee Of underwriters
as a place ofmeeting. Hence Lloyd's, o.
Lloyd's coffee house, became known to al
city men as a place connected with the in
surance Of ships. Lloyd in due time va
gathered to his fathers, and the coffee hous'
disappeared to make way for new street
and handsome buildings still the nam
clung to the society, and has done SO eve