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February, 1910 "TAE MarRINeE. REVIEW /3 Lake Carriers' Association © HE third week in January is annually be- coming more important to lake vessel in- terests, Diur- ing that week the Great Lakes Pro- tective Asso- Clation,. = t he Laké= Carrie President Livingstone, of ers' Associa- the Lake Carriers' Ass'n. tion ~and the Lumber Carriers' Association held their annual meetings in Detroit. Especially important was the meet- ing of the Great Lakes Protective As- sociation. This association was or- ganized at a meeting of the Lake Carriers' Association a year ago and was formed especially to carry partial insurance upon the fleet. Vessel acci- dents have been so numerous that un- derwriters were beginning to regard the trade with distrust and some of the leading companies were actually withdrawing from the field. It be- came imperative that some concerted effort should be made to minimize the number of accidents, and especial- ly to avoid those caused by the desire to take advantage of the last inch of draught. J. S. Ashley. was the ledder in' this movement and to him the success of the association is largely due. Par- tial losses were considerably reduced, though total losses in the concluding week of navigation were unfortunate- ly heavy. The work of the associa- tion is well set forth in Mr. Ashley's report, of which the following is an excerpeE: It was but a few years ago that the vessel tonnage upon the great lakes, composed entirely or nearly so of wooden vessels, was called upon to pay a premium of but 2% per cent for their insurance. The metal ship has 'been in existence but a comparatively few years, dur- ing which time large sums of mon- ey have been expended 'by the gov- ernment for the improvement of the channels and establishment and maintenance of aids to navigation. Notwithstanding the fact that these metal vessels are not as liable to total loss as were their predeces- sors, the wooden vessels, and that their insurance constitutes a much larger volume of business, the rates of insurance premiums have grad- ually been advanced until at the present time the owner of vessel property is paying the almost pro- hibitory tariff of 5% per cent for insurance. The rates have 'been advanced from year to year and with each advance the underwriters have stated and reiterated the state- ment that they were not only un- able to make a fair profit in their business, but were actually losing money in accepting risks at the rates prevailing prior to each in- crease. The rate of 5 per cent pre- Valled in 1907. In 1908, although the rate was not advanced, ~ the cost of insurance was actually in- creased about 10 per cent by rea- son of the change in the method of arriving at the straight hull valua- tion. This increase in the cost, of in- surance caused a great deal of dis- cussion among the vessel owners during the season of 1908, and at a meeting in Detroit, on Oct. 23 the matter crystallized into a form- al consideration of the question of ways and means to bring about a reduction of the premiums, themselves a percentage of the in- surance of the vessels had been ex- amined by Mr. Harvey D. Goulder, who stated that such a proceeding was perfectly legitimate and express- ed the opinion that a plan of oper- ation was entirely feasible. The mat- ter was then taken under considera- tion and subsequently a general call was issued to the vessel men of the great lakes for a meeting to be held in Detroit. on Jan, 1s 1909. This call was responded to by a very large and representative number of vessel owners on the great lakes, together with repre- sentatives of the underwriters and trust companies. At this meeting after a very com- prehensive discussion of the sub- ject in all its phases it was the un- animously expressed opinion that the largest item of expense in the operation of ships on the great lakes is the cost of repairs by rea- son of accident, resulting in the rate of premium on hull insurance Mr. J. S. ASHLEY, The leader in the movement to reduce insurance premiums on the_ lakes. The unanimously expressed opin- ion of those present at this meet- ing was that it was highly desirable that some action should be taken with this end in view and that there should be concerted effort on the part of the vessel interests to reduce vessel losses to a mini- mum by some method of regula- tion. The legality of forming a co-in- surance society among the vessel men with a view of taking upon have been increased until it has reached a point where its. cost makes it nearly prohibitory; that regardless of whether the vessel is or is not insured the vessel owner himself must pay the entire cost of repairs and that every vessel owner of insured property partici- pates in the losses of every other insurer. Those present were also of the unanimous opinion that, inasmuch as the underwriter must from the