An original insurance document linked to the ship’s $5 million total-loss cover, arranged just weeks before the disaster, is set to go under the hammer in Britain, with an estimated price of up to $67,000. The document is being offered by British auction house Henry Aldridge and Son at its November 21 auction in Devizes, England. It carries an estimate of £30,000 to £50,000, equivalent to approximately $40,000 to $67,000.
More than a century after the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic, an unusual piece of paperwork connected to the doomed liner’s final voyage has resurfaced.
Its most remarkable detail, however, is what happened after the disaster: Titanic’s owners received the full insurance payout within 30 days of the sinking, even as families of those who died faced a much longer wait for compensation. The ship was covered for a total loss of $5 million through an arrangement involving 77 insurers, according to the auction description and reports by PEOPLE. One of the major participants was Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company, which covered $100,000 of the risk. It should not be confused with a single policy showing that Atlantic Mutual alone insured the entire ship for $5 million. The $5 million total-loss cover reported in connection with the resurfaced Atlantic Mutual document was part of the wider insurance arrangement. The auction house says the limits of Atlantic Mutual’s policy were also paid within 30 days of the sinking. Families who pursued negligence claims had to wait four years for compensation, eventually receiving a combined total of $663,000, according to Aldridge. The estimate of up to £50,000 reflects its rarity and its connection to one of the most famous maritime disasters in history.
Because it records insurance protection for a ship that was widely believed to be virtually unsinkable, yet disappeared beneath the Atlantic less than a month after the policy took effect, the document is particularly striking.
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge told PEOPLE that it was extraordinary that the owners received their payout within a month of the disaster, when the funerals of many victims had barely taken place. He also described the words “total loss” in the document as particularly striking given how soon after the policy was issued the ship was destroyed. A dealer subsequently purchased the Titanic insurance document, according to the auction house and PEOPLE. Aldridge said the auction house had been unable to locate another surviving original insurance document relating to Titanic and described the item as unique to its knowledge.
The insurance arrangement was taken out by the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, the parent company of the White Star Line, which operated Titanic. The resurfaced document comes from Atlantic Mutual’s archives and records its individual share of the wider insurance arrangement. His comparison highlights the difference between the insurance arrangements protecting the vessel’s owners and the lengthy process faced by people seeking compensation for the human losses. Following its liquidation, historical material from its archives was included in an exhibition in New York.