Lesson 43
Fully insured
Who owned the pie dish and why?
Insurance companies are normally willing to insure anything.
Insuring public or private property is a standard practice in most countries in the world.
If, however, you were holding an open air garden party or a fete it would be equally possible to insure yourself in the event of bad weather.
Needless to say, the bigger the risk an insurance company takes, the higher the premium you will have to pay.
It is not uncommon to hear that a shipping company has made a claim for the cost of salvaging a sunken ship.
But the claim made by a local authority to recover the cost of salvaging a sunken pie dish must surely be unique.
Admittedly it was an unusual pie dish, for it was eighteen feet long and six feet wide.
It had been purchased by a local authority so that an enormous pie could be baked for an annual fair.
The pie committee decided that the best way to transport the dish would be by canal so they insured it for the trip.
Shortly after it was launched, the pie committee went to a local inn to celebrate.
At the same time, a number of teenagers climbed on to the dish and held a little party of their own.
Dancing proved to be more than the dish could bear,
for during the party it capsized and sank in seven feet of water.
The pie committee telephoned a local garage owner who arrived in a recovery truck to salvage the pie dish.
Shivering in their wet clothes, the teenagers looked on while three men dived repeatedly into the water to locate the dish.
They had little difficulty in finding it, but hauling it out of the water proved to be a serious problem.
The sides of the dish were so smooth that it was almost impossible to attach hawsers and chains to the rim without damaging it.