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418 as well as much valuable information regarding the various rules to which all insurers and insurance companies had to. submit. For instance, all agreements had to be made in writ- ing, from the fact that misunder- standings had frequently arisen in the past from the method of insuring a ship verbally. Consequently the lat- ter method was declared illegal and non-binding. When an insurance had been agreed upon, it had to be signed in the presence of a _ registrar and enrolled as a public act, while without the stipulated registrar’s sanction all insurance bargains were null and void. The registrar was required to be a man of fair’ education, strict sobriety and of “good repute’; he was further required to live in a populous part of the town, and place above his doorway a sign with the words “Office of Insurance”. For his services in conducting the completion of the bar- gain he was to receive the “half of a quarter per cent for every hundred livres”, and so on, rising in value ac- cording to a fixed scale. Insurance Against Pirates The registrar was obliged to keep in his office a box, into which those who obtained policies were forced to put, over and above the “half of a quarter per cent” paid for the insur- ance policy, a fixed sum, according to the extent of their transactions. The money derived by this means was utilized in part for the benefit of the poor, and in part for the main- tenance of ship-wrecked mariners. Outside the registrar's door was an- other box for the reception of “God’s pence”, a toll which was used for the ransoming of travelers and _ sea- men captured by pirates. At the time of the Crusades it was no unusual thing for travelers to insure their lives against capture; and the insurers had to pay whatever ransom might be demanded for their release. ‘Those, however, too poor to effect insurances of this description were perforce obliged to depend upon the money placed in the boxes for the reception of “God’s pence”. By the end of the 16th century insurance companies had been institut- ed all over England; vessels were in- sured for five months when their voy- ages were to Flanders, Portugal and Norway; for 12 months when the ship sailed to the coasts of Italy, the Azores, Peru, Brazil or the Indies; and notification of loss was received for the former until the end of three months, while six and even as much as 12 months were permitted for the latter. When these stipulated times had elapsed no claim could be ad- that who were : THE MARINE REVIEW mitted, not under any circumstances. The earliest English policy extant dates back to 1613, and was unearthed “in the Bodleian library, Oxford. A few extracts from so interesting and unique a document may not be alto- gether without value. It commences: In the name of God, Amen! Be it known unto all men by these presents Morris, Abbot and Devereux Wogan of London Marchants doe make assurance and cause themselves and everye of them to be assured lost or not lost frome London to Zante Petrasse and Saphalonia or any of them upon woollen and lynen cloth, leade kersies, iron and any other goodes and merchandize heretofore laden aboarde the good ship called the tiger of London (whereof Thomas Crowder is master under God in this present voyedge) of the burthen of 200 touns or thereabouts, etc. At the period that this policy was taken out, little can be learned of the court of insurance, but in the reign of Charles II, the king’s bench on several occasions came into conflict with this insurance court; while grad- ually the disputes affecting insurance were referred to the ordinary courts of law, which now settle all such matters. In the 18th century marine insur- ance was, if anything, more than ever a paying concern. As a means of showing to what extént marine and other insurances took hold’ on the Brit- ish public, however, the following list bears eloquent testimony. The period is that of the notorious South Sea Bubble, and the list runs—‘insurance for insuring and increasing children’s fortunes’; “insurance from death by drinking Geneva”; “insurance from lying’; “insurance from housebreak- ers’; “rum. insurance’;.. “insurance from highwaymen”. These are but a few of the absurd schemes of insur- ance foisted upon the public when marine insurance was in its youth, Launch 37,000 Ton Vessel The quadruple turbine liner Paris, of the French Trans-Atlantic Steamship Co., was launched recently at St. Nazairre, France. She is the largest steamship ever constructed in any French yard and will go into the ser- vice between Havre and New York. Paris has a displacement of 37,000 tons and has 45,000 horsepower. She will be registered at 25,500 gross tons. She is 639 feet long, with a beam of 84 feet, a depth of hold of 59 feet, and a draft of 40 feet. She will accommo- date 3,000 passengers of all classes. Parts will have three big funnels, two masts, double bottoms, and watertight compartments running through the en- tire length of the vessel. Her hull is divided by 14 bulkheads. She has nine decks, including a shelter deck, and two sawell -©as> at December, 1916 ™ promenade decks, which run the full length of the ship. She will have ac- commodations for 485 first, 476 second, 920 third class, and 1,118 steerage pas- sengers. The cabins and saloons are decorated on the same lines as FRANCE, which came from Havre to New York in 1912. It is not expected that Paris will be ready before 1917. Commercial Boat to Be Private Yacht The steamer Unitep States, former- ly owned by the Indiana Transporta- tion Co., has been purchased from the Crosby Transportation Co., Chi- cago, by Col. E. H. R. Green, of New York, and the boat has made a rec- ord trip from Milwaukee to her new home. The boat was sold, according to report, for $250,000. The sale was negotiated by the Chicago Steamboat Exchange, Chicago. The steamer UNITED STATES was built by the Manitowoc Dry Dock & Shipbuilding Co. in 1909, and she was designed so that should the Great Lakes to the Gulf Waterway ever materialize into reality, she would be ready for such service. She is 214 feet long and has a beam of 40 feet. Her speed is 18 miles an hour. She made the trip of 2,800 miles from Mil- waukee to New York, actual running time, in 11 days. In. her trip to the coast she was commanded by Capt. Frank Dorrity, of Milwaukee, with J. S. Sauer, of Chicago, chief engineer. The boat left Milwaukee, Thursday, Oct. 12, and arrived at Ogdensburg Monday, Oct. 16. She laid there sufficient time to put on ample fuel to take her to New York. She made only short stops enroute from Ogdensburg, and while she encountered heavy weather on Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, as sea, she arrived in New York 12 days after the com- mencement of the voyage. She is now at the Todd shipyards where ex- tensive alterations are being made to make her the most spacious yacht on fresh or salt water. Submarine Launched The United States submarine L-6, the first underwater boat to be built in southern California, was launched re- cently at the yards of the California Shipbuilding Co., Long Beach, Cal. After leaving the ways it struck a mud- bank and was held there at an angle of 45 degrees until pulled off by tugs, but was in no way damaged. The German steamers KuHaALir and’ ZIETEN, now at Mozambique, have been renamed FERNAO VELoso and TUNGE.