If shipwrecks were more common in the past, did people shipping things have a higher expectation that their stuff wouldn’t reach its destination?

Question

Like, did they just shrug and be like “oh well, I guess we aren’t getting our pineapples this year” or was it a rare and problematic occurence?

In: Other

Answer 1

In a word, yes.

Obviously depending on when and where you’re talking about the risk of a wreck (or loss of cargo) varied, but carrying cargo (or passengers) by ship was often considered a risky business. There are plenty of examples of important people lost at sea, or invasions wrecked by storms.

This meant treating shipping as a risky business. Certainly many merchants were ruined when vessels failed to arrive, and colonies could go the same way. It’s no coincidence that marine insurance was one of the most important and earliest, perhaps even the earliest, forms of insurance.