Lloyds of London, of course... I stole this from here...
The eighty-pound bell recovered from the 1799 shipwreck of the
HMS Lutine has been a fixture of successive Lloyd's headquarters
buildings since 1857. It is traditional for the bell to be rung
to announce the arrival of news related to a risk insured at
Lloyd's. One toll of the bell means good news, two means disaster.
However, in September 1996 a new tradition was initiated
when the U.K. Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) approved Lloyd's
recovery plan and officially authorized the establishment of Lloyd's
new run-off company Equitas. On this historic occasion, the Lutine
bell was struck three times to commemorate Lloyd's "recovery" from
disaster. Some bankrupt Names have speculated that now Lloyd's will
ring the bell three times every time it successfully steals more than
$20 billion from 30,000 investors without even one of the
perpetrators receiving civil judgement or criminal prosecution.
By the way, the proper pronunciation of "Lutine" rhymes with
"looting." What a fitting name for one of Lloyd's most honored traditions.
The eighty-pound bell recovered from the 1799 shipwreck of the
HMS Lutine has been a fixture of successive Lloyd's headquarters
buildings since 1857. It is traditional for the bell to be rung
to announce the arrival of news related to a risk insured at
Lloyd's. One toll of the bell means good news, two means disaster.
However, in September 1996 a new tradition was initiated
when the U.K. Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) approved Lloyd's
recovery plan and officially authorized the establishment of Lloyd's
new run-off company Equitas. On this historic occasion, the Lutine
bell was struck three times to commemorate Lloyd's "recovery" from
disaster. Some bankrupt Names have speculated that now Lloyd's will
ring the bell three times every time it successfully steals more than
$20 billion from 30,000 investors without even one of the
perpetrators receiving civil judgement or criminal prosecution.
By the way, the proper pronunciation of "Lutine" rhymes with
"looting." What a fitting name for one of Lloyd's most honored traditions.
