Ships Were Sunk on Purpose. The Plimsoll Line Stopped It

British shipowners in the eighteen seventies sent their own ships to sea expecting them to sink, because a vessel insured for more than she was worth was worth more on the seabed than afloat. The crews drowned, and the crews could not refuse to sail: refusing counted as desertion, and desertion carried prison. Board of Trade reports counted 856 ships lost within ten miles of the British coast in 1871 alone, in weather no worse than a strong breeze. A Royal Commission found sailing-ship crews dying at more than four times the rate of coal miners, in an era when coal mining was a byword for danger. This video follows Samuel Plimsoll, a Derby MP who had never been to sea, from his 1873 book Our Seamen through the libel writs that nearly ruined him, to the day in July 1875 when he shook his fist at the House of Commons, refused to withdraw the word "villains," and was ordered out. 0:00 — Introduction 0:29 — Coffin ships and the insurance fraud 2:46 — Why sailors could not refuse to sail 4:23 — Samuel Plimsoll and Our Seamen 7:38 — The outburst in the Commons, 1875 10:07 — A law that forgot to say where the line went 11:10 — From British ports to 162 states 12:02 — What it actually saved You will learn why the 1876 Act was almost worthless for fourteen years, what one shipmaster reportedly did with his load line, and why nobody — including Lloyd's Register and Plimsoll's own biographer — can say how many lives the mark has saved. The Story Behind Everything TV examines the decisions, documents, and systems behind the events that shaped the modern world. Contact: elarradnabil9@gmail.com © THE STORY BEHIND EVERYTHING TV 2026