Mr. Meyer's threatened ruin

Mr. Meyer, a corpulent, hook-nosed underwriter at Lloyds with flashing black eyes, faced financial ruin as the heaviest insurer of the steamship Titan. When news of the Titan's destruction reached the Royal Exchange, Meyer was among the first to react, breaking away from the crowd and making his way to the Captain's room, where, after a draught of brandy, he seated himself heavily, with a groan that came from his soul. "Father Abraham," he muttered, "this will ruin me." He had covered ten thousand pounds on the Titan, and the loss threatened to consume his entire fortune. One observer noted that it would take his wife's diamonds to settle his debts. Meyer's distress was so profound that he neglected his business, spending his time in the Captain's room drinking heavily and bemoaning his luck, until fellow underwriters intervened, putting him into a cab, taking him to a Turkish bath, and then home. The next morning he was at his desk, clear-eyed and clear-headed, and for a few weeks was a busy, scheming man of business.

The Financial Stakes and the Collision Clause

The crisis deepened when the story of the Titan's collision with the Royal Age emerged. Meyer had also insured the Royal Age, and the collision clause in the Titan's policy meant that if the Titan were found liable for the Royal Age's loss, Meyer would have to pay out on both ships. He realized that the concealment of the collision by Captain Bryce and the Titan's officers might void the policy, but the attorney for the steamship company argued that the concealment had no bearing on the validity of the policy. Meyer, in his excitement, stamped up and down the floor, shouting, "I will not bay it. I will not. I will fight you in der courts." He then seized on the fact that a drunken man had been on lookout when the Titan struck the iceberg, arguing that this would be enough to void the policy. However, the first officer, Mr. Austen, under pressure, recanted his earlier statement and swore that Rowland was a sober and competent lookout at the time of the wreck, undermining Meyer's case.

The Confrontation and Rowland's Refusal to Testify

Meyer's hopes were briefly revived when Captain Bryce, in a moment of rage, inadvertently confessed to drugging Rowland with an infusion of Indian hemp. Meyer danced up and down in his joy, believing he had a witness. But the turning point came when Rowland, after learning that Mr. Selfridge, the child Myra's grandfather, was the heaviest stockholder in the Titan and would be ruined if the insurance were not paid, declared that he would not testify. "Then, Mr. Meyer," Rowland said, "it remains for me to tell you that the insurance on the Titan will be paid, as well as any liabilities included in and specified by the collision clause in the policy. In short, I, the one man who can prevent it, refuse to testify." Meyer was stunned, pleading with Rowland, asking what he had done to deserve this betrayal, and even locking the door to prevent Rowland from leaving. But Rowland, supported by Captain Barry, who declared he had a "blamed bad memory" and would not testify either, forced his way out, leaving Meyer in a state of grievous lamentation, weeping and wailing and gnashing his teeth.

The Aftermath and the Averted Ruin

Meyer's threatened ruin was averted by Rowland's refusal to testify, which forced the underwriters to pay the insurance. Rowland's reasoning was that the cause of the wreck was full speed in a fog, and that the underwriters knew the speed and took the risk. "Let them pay," he said. Meyer, however, did not immediately give up. He called a conference of the underwriters, and they decided to remain silent about the story they hoped to play, spending time and money hunting for other witnesses among the Titan's crew and trying to improve Captain Barry's memory. But after a week of fruitless effort, they decided to give the story to the press, hoping that publicity would bring corroboratory evidence. The story was cabled to New York, but it arrived too late for publication the morning of the day Rowland landed with Myra. In the end, Meyer's financial ruin was avoided, but only through the moral choice of the man he had sought to discredit.