DIFFICULT- Insurance Accounts
Account: The Atomic Energy Commission required Con-Ed have in place a total
of $300,000,000 in nuclear incident coverage in order to re-certify for operation
Three Mile Island’s Number Two Reactor. Insurance capacity worldwide had
been scoured for some weeks in order to place $297,000,000 and Whitcomb Surplus
Lines was able to place the final $3,000,000 in nuclear incident liability limits
and Number Two Reactor was put back on line.
Account: Our insured, an offshore oil drilling contractor was moving their
semi submersible platform to Bremerhaven for maintenance and repair. The
rig was about 200 feet wide and had to be towed through a canal 204 feet wide and
under a railroad bridge. They used four tugs to pull and control the rig, two in
front and two behind, and the port pilot was to guide the tugs by whistling from
the rig. One whistle for port and two whistles to go more to the starboard.
Because there were shops and homes lining the street that ran alongside the canal
the whistles echoed and the tugs got confused. The port pilot jumped from the deck
of the rig to the helicopter pad in front of the rig hoping the tug captains could
hear him better but while he was running the rig drifted into the railroad bridge
and knocked it askew. Rail traffic to Bremerhaven had to be rerouted for a year
but coincidently the city had planned to replace the bridge within a year anyways
so the loss wasn’t as much as it could have been.
A 400 foot crane was lost over the side of a crane barge in North Sea. In order
to obtain the drilling permit from Norway the oil company warranted the sea floor
would be returned to its original condition so the Norwegian Government insisted
the crane be retrieved.. Our Insurers argued that the sea floor was littered with
wreckage from torpedoed world war two military and merchant marine vessels but Norway
was insistent.
I interviewed a salvage expert whose plan was to fill the derrick crane with bags,
then pump the bags full of pin pong balls and float the crane to the surface. Up
to that point I was for the idea but then in order to get the crane to the mainland
50 miles way his plan was to lay it astraddle a 200 foot freighter. That is, the
derrick was to lay cross ways on the freighter, not length ways. I did not go along
with that idea.
When global positioning first came on the scene we moved a rig from a base 50 miles
east of Jakarta all the way to the north sea and positioned it within one and half
feet of the drill template set on the ocean floor using satellite navigation for
the whole trip.
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