Page 13: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2016)

“The international group is what I call the Bergdorf Goodman Syndrome.

Like Bergdorf Goodman, the International Group has a ‘Gold Standard’ of quality, service

Under that gold standard roof are lots of individual gold standard retailers of varying and ? nancial integrity. sizes that have their own identities and their individual point of contacts.” he American Club is a third- British insurers who had cover much of leading marine insurance brokerage surer. It never really looked beyond it’s party liability insurer – a Pro- the U.S. ? eet at the time became prohib- at the time in New York, who wrote to own shores, nor really did it have to; the tection & Indemnity (P&I) ited by an act of Parliament in England several American ship owners to gauge American blue water ? eet was substan-

Tclub – founded 1917. While – the Trading with the Enemy Act – from their interest in forming an American tial.”

P&I clubs date back to the mid-1800s insuring those parties that were still trad- P&I club. In short, the answer was an and the concept of ‘mutuality’ even fur- ing with the enemy (prior to the United emphatic ‘yes,’ and on Valentines day, Changing Times ther, Hughes said “We were founded States entering the war, some shipown- February 14, 1917, The American Club The evolution of the American ? eet relatively late in the day …. New kids on ers continued trading with Germany.) was born. of cargo ships is well recorded. Vibrant the block at nearly 100 years old.” “As a result, there was a large constit- “So the club was started in those rather through two world wars and beyond, it

Ultimately it was circumstance sur- uency of American tonnage that needed interesting circumstances,” said Hughes, since (in the past four decades) has en- rounding World War I that led to the an alternative for their P&I cover,” said “and was for the majority of its history dured a steady and pronounced decline. emergence of The American Club, as the Hughes. Enter Johnson and Higgins, solely and exclusively an American in- “By the early 1990s it was clear

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