history of society

In the second half of the
18th century, London
merchants, shipowners, and
captains often gathered at
Edward Lloyds ’ coffee
house to gossip and make
deals including sharing the
risks and rewards of
individual voyages. This
became known as
underwriting after the
practice of signing one's
name to the bottom of a
document pledging to
make good a portion of
the losses if the ship didn’t
make it in return for a
portion of the profits. It did
not take long to realize
that the underwriters
needed a way of assessing
the quality of the ships
that they were being asked
to insure. In 1760, the
Register Society was
formed — the first
classification society and
which would subsequently
become Lloyd's Register —
to publish an annual
register of ships. This
publication attempted to
classify the condition of the
ship ’s hull and equipment.
At that time, an attempt
was made to classify the
condition of each ship on
an annual basis. The
condition of the hull was
classified A, E, I, O or U,
according to the state of its
construction and its
adjudged continuing
soundness (or lack thereof)
. Equipment was G, M, or B:
simply, good, middling or
bad. In time, G, M and B
were replaced by 1, 2 and
3, which is the origin of the
well-known expression 'A1',
meaning 'first or highest
class'. The purpose of this
system was not to assess
safety, fitness for purpose
or seaworthiness of the
ship. It was to evaluate risk.