17. Lloyd’s paid $5,000 for an automobile that sank in Titanic
In addition to passengers, Titanic carried cargo with a total value of $420,000 ($11 million today) all of which was underwritten by Lloyd’s syndicates. Among the cargo was a 1912 Renault Type CB Coupe de Ville. The car was owned by a first-class passenger named William Carter, who was aboard with his family and chauffeur. He had purchased the car in France, and was returning from there to the family home in Bryn Mawr, the Main Line community just west of Philadelphia. The Carters survived the sinking and upon return to the United States, Carter filed a claim against White Star line for the value of his lost Renault, $5,000 ($132,000).
In the history of insuring automobiles, it was unique, being the first claim for an automobile lost due to collision with an iceberg. $132,000 for a Renault also seems unlikely. Carter’s claim, as with all others submitted to Lloyd’s as a result of the loss of RMS Titanic was paid by Lloyd’s, with a speed unthinkable 100 years later. Titanic claims also featured what was to then the largest life insurance claim ever paid to that time, $50,000 ($1.3 million). Lloyd’s paid that amount to the widow of John B. Thayer, a senior executive with the Pennsylvania Railroad who died in the sinking.