9 October: The Lutine Bell

On this date in 1799 British frigate HMS Lutine sank off the Dutch coast. 10 things you might not know about the ship and her famous bell:

1. The ship was launched at Toulon, France, in 1779. Known then as simply Lutine, she served in the French navy until 1793 when she was one of sixteen ships handed over to a British fleet at the end of the Siege of Toulon, to prevent her being captured by the French Republicans. The British re-fitted her and re-named her HMS Lutine. As a British navy ship she served in the North Sea and was part of the blockade of Amsterdam.
2. Her cargo on the day she sank was a huge amount of Gold and Silver collected by merchants in the City of London, intended to prevent a stock market crash in Hamburg, Germany. The precious cargo was underwritten by Lloyd's of London. Nobody knows exactly how much gold and silver was on board, since Lloyd's records were destroyed by Fire in 1838, but it has been estimated at around £1.2 million. There are also rumours that the Dutch crown jewels were also on board, having been repaired in London.
3. HMS Lutine was lost when a heavy north-westerly gale and the tides dragged her onto a notoriously dangerous sandbank off the coast of the Netherlands. All but one of the 240 passengers and crew on board perished, including the captain, Lancelot Skynner, a rector's son from Easton on the Hill, near Stamford, England.
4. It was obvious from the start there was little chance of recovering the cargo. Commander of the Squadron, Nathaniel Portlock, wrote to the Admiralty to inform them of the loss of the ship. He wrote, ‘I shall use every endeavour to save what I can from the wreck, but from the situation she is lying in, I am afraid little will be recovered.’ To this day, more than 80% of it is still missing.
5. Anyone who has ever submitted an insurance claim will know what a palaver it is, with the insurance company doing their best to avoid paying out, and dragging the process on for ages. In contrast, Lloyd's of London paid the claim in full after just two weeks, establishing their reputation for paying valid claims promptly, and also for having the financial resources to do so.
6. The ship's bell was recovered on 17 July 1858, after being found tangled in chains. It remained that way until Lloyd's hung it in their underwriting room. It weighs 48 kilograms (106 lb) and is 46 centimetres (18 in) in diameter.
7. There is a mystery surrounding the bell. It isn't engraved with the name Lutine, but "St. Jean – 1779". There are two plausible theories as to why this should be. One is that the ship was originally going to be called St Jean, but the name was changed at some point between the engraving of the bell and the launch. The other is that when Lutine was claimed British navy, they'd stripped out all the fittings, including the bell, and when they re-fitted her the installed the bell from another French ship they had captured.
8. In the days before e-mail and news feeds, Lloyd's needed a way to inform the workers in the underwriting room simultaneously of the safe return, or loss, of a ship. The Lutine Bell fulfilled that purpose. When a ship arrived home safely the bell was rung twice. If the ship was lost, the bell would be rung once. When a ship went down, an entry was made in a log book. Many of these are preserved in storage at Lloyd's, though one historic copy is always on display under the bell.
9. In due course, the bell developed a crack, and, since there are other ways now to inform people of bad news, the bell hasn't been rung for overdue ships for some years. The last time it was rung to tell of a lost ship was in 1979 and the last time it was rung to herald the return of an overdue ship was in 1989. It now only rings for major tragedies and disasters. It was rung after the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh; after the 9/11 disaster, the Asian tsunami, and the London Bombings. It is always rung at the start and end of the two minutes silence on Armistice Day. The loss of a ship is still recorded, in copperplate handwriting, with pen and ink, in a log book.
10. The bell isn't the only part of HMS Lutine to have found its way back to Lloyd's. The rudder was salvaged on 18 September 1858, and was made into a chair and table which also resides at their offices.

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