The Savannah morning news., 1902-02-27

cas- may be demanded by the under
writer's, and the day following the quo
tation may rise to so.
A Mysterious Telegram.
In the case of certain ship long
overdue the price had reached a high
figure, when a telegram purporting to
come from the owners was received
stating that the vessel had been spoken.
This good news naturally caused
heavy drop in the quotation, but on be-
ing communicated with by letter the
owners intimated that they had sent
no telegram, and that no intelligence
of the ship had been received by them
The postoffice allowed a photograph to
be made of the original telegram hand
ed in. and this photograph was exhibit
ed at Lloyds,, with an offer of a large
reward for information that would lead
to the discovery of the sender, but the
mystery remains unsplved to this day.
The manner in which q dishonest per-
son could benefit by such an artihce is
obvious. Assuming the figure quoted
by the underwriters on the overdue ship
to be so guineas per cent. the quota
ton would fall, say, to D. on favorable
news being received. An insurance
could then be effected by the sender Of
the bogus telegram at the comparative
arrived, his profit would be 95 per cent.
while the underwriters loss would be
correspondingly heavy.
The scuttling of a ship is an opera
tion of more risky character, since
there is always danger of a confeder-
ate babbling or of an inquisitive MEM
ber of the crew seeing too much. But
there are other methods of effecting a
total loss involving less danger of de-
lection.
In years gone by, when the law was
more severe on offenses of this kind
dishonest shippers have been hanged
by the neck for wrecking their ships.
The case Of the notorious Capt. Cooling
will always be prominent in the annals
of Loyds.
One fine morning early in the last
century the fishermen of Brighton were
astonished to see ship going down in
a calm, unrunied sea- They put off TO
render assistance, but were repulsed
with Indignation and many violent ex-
pletives by the skipper. who coolly got
out the ships boat and rowed ashore
with his crew. taking up his quarters
at the Old Ship Inn.
Capt. CodIinR's Doom.
A revenue cutter, more persistent
than the fishermen. took the ship in
tow. but she sank before she could be
brought to the shore.
Codling was subsequently arrested
and at his trial simDIe-minded sea-
man described how by the Captains
orders he had bored holes below the
water line. and on this method prov
ing too slow for Capt. Codling had
brought a hatchet into play. with the
result that the vessel filled.
Cooling was executed i'm the presence
of great multitude, but, as Mr.. Fred
erick Martin explains in his exhaus-
tive history of Lloyds the owners man
aged TO escape the meshes of the law.
In recent times one Of the most inn
pudent attempts TO defraud the un-
derwr!ters was that of a certain
worthy who insured a yacht for a sub
sta nt.al sum. Soon afterwaFd two
men IN an exhausted state arrived at
Sheerness in a rowing boat, declaring
that their yacht had sunk some miles
of. and that they had escaped after
encountering divers perils.
But before the insurance money was
paid II was discovered that the ship
wrecked mariners never had a yacht,
and that the boat in which they al
legged they had escaped had been hired
at a nelghboring port.
The famous borse-insurance frauds
OF few years back were attended with
no small cruelty, and for a time they
were successful. The method of the
practitioners was TO ship horses to
America and South Africa after effect
ing heavy assurances on them. and
then to poison them on board ship.
After several large amounts had been
paid over. suspicion was aroused. and
veterinary surgeon was sent. un-
known 10 the confederates. TO accom-
pnny one OF the consignments. The
horses died. The wet" made an ex-
animation. and discovered strychnine
In their stomachs. and Baron Pollock
ip due course dealt with four OF the
persons concerned IN the plot.