LLOYDS, loids. An incorporated association of underwriters, merchants, ship-owners, ship and insurance hookers. The home office of the association is in London, where it (wen pies a suite of rooms in the Royal Exchange. The objects fur which the association was formed are, according to the net of incorporation: (a) carry ing on the business of marine insurance; (b) the protection of the interests of the members of the association: and (e) the collection, publication, and diffusion of intelligence nail information with respect to shipping. The association is composed of members and subscribers, and no others are allowed to avail themselves of the privileges of the roams. The members are of two classes, underwriting members who pay an en trance fee of £100 and are required to deposit securities to the value of 150I10 to 110,000 as a guarantee of their ongagements, and non-under writing members who pay a fee of twelve guineas. Subscribers pay an annual subscription of five guineas. but no entrance fee, and have no voice in the management of the affairs of the associa tion. The management of the association and its operations is delegated to the 'committee for managing the affairs of Lloyds,' selected by the :members from among themselves. Routine wort: is carried on by a secretary and assistants and a large clerical stall'. The method of effecting insurance is for a broker to write upon a slip of paper the name of a ship and of her master, the character of the cargo, the amount at which it is valued, nature of the voyage, etc. If the risk is accepted each underwriter subscribes his name and the amount of it which he will underwrite, the insurance being effected as soon as the total amount is made up. As the premium rate largely depends upon correct, information upon all points connected with the risk in question. one of the first requisites of the association has been an efficient maritime intelligence department, and in the development of this the greatest success has been achieved.
The association of Lloyds had its origin over two hundred years ago in the meeting; of mer chants for business and gossip in a coffee-house kept by Edward Lloyd in Tower Street, London. The earliest mention of these meetings appears in the London Gazette of Felirnary 18, 1688, but the character of the naive implies that they were then no new thing. Their growing importance led 3k. Lloyd to remove to Lombard Street in 1692, and soon afterwards be began the issue of Lloyd's Xvirs, devoted to mercantile and mari time information. eventually succeeded icy Lloyd's
List (published dailv), the second oldest news paper in London. daily), merchants and under writers continued to meet in the same manner during the greater part of the eighteenth cen tury without any apparent organization or rules, but as the business increased in volume, the mer chants, underwriters, and associates moved first to a building in Pope's Head Alley and finally, in 1774. to the Royal Exehange. The association adopted in 1779 a printed form of policy differing but little from that in use to-day.
In 1811 the society was reorganized. and in 1871 incorporated. Its agents are to he found in every maritime port in the world frequented by deep-sea ships. Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping is a volume published annually containing information respecting ves sels, their age, material, repairs, owners, cap tains, etc.; also details of docks and other mari time information. The office of the Register is distinct from Lloyd's of the Exchange.
The classification of ships, as regards their con struetion and made by Lloyds sur veyors and contained in the registers, dates from the of the eighteenth century, and in the earliest copy extant of Lloyd's Register of Ship ping, dated 1764-65-66, vessels are classified in groups, designated by the letters A, E, 1, 0, U; A standing for a first-class ship. With these letters Were used II, .N1, and B, referring to the equipment. and imlieating whether it was good, middling, or bad. In the Register of 1768-69 the numbers 1, 2. 3, 4 are employed to denote the condition of the equipment, and the letters A, E, 1, 0. U are printed small. In the Register 1775 7G the hull is again described by Roman capital letters, and the equipment by the figures 1 and 2. As iron ships began to be used, it was found necessary to classify them into grades, and in 1869, on the adoption of new rules for ship-build ing, numbers were used for iron ships, and a sys tem of classification followed which in the main is still used. This classification of ships was deter mined by rules adopted to govern ship-build ers, and was universally recognized by merchants and others, as it enabled them to determine the seaworthiness of a vessel by consulting the regis ter. See article Al for modern systems of classi fying wooden and iron ships. Consult the occa sional publications of Lloyds; Lloyd's Rules for the Building and Classification of Ships; and Annals of Lloyd's Register of British and For eign Skipping (London, 1884).