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Finding Treasures Among Insurer's Wreckage (Wall Street Journal)

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February 22, 2012 • Reprints

For more than a century, Atlantic Mutual Insurance Co. covered yachts, steamships laden with gold, and even a seemingly indestructible passenger liner called the RMS Titanic. Then last year, after a failed expansion into workers' compensation and other insurance lines, the company itself sank — leaving behind a treasure trove of nautical memorabilia that is now up for sale. Currently stashed in the offices of an art gallery, the relics include model ships, maritime paintings, barometers, telescopes, sextants, gold nuggets and even a copy of the insurance policy for the Titanic's hull (Atlantic Mutual cut a $100,000 check to cover its share of claims.) But the most valuable bit of loot may be the 342 leather-bound volumes that represent possibly the most extensive record of U.S. maritime disasters.

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