Royal Exchange
The Royal Exchange in London is the headquarters of Lloyds, the immense association of underwriters, brokers, and shipping-men that evolved from Edward Lloyd's coffeehouse in the late seventeenth century. It is a corporation so well equipped and powerfully organized that kings and ministers of state appeal to it for foreign news. The apartment known as the "Room" is studded with desks, around which a hurrying, shouting crowd of brokers, clerks, and messengers surges. Bulletin boards display the marine casualties of the world, and a functionary called the "Caller" announces the bare particulars of bulletin news in a mighty sing-song voice before it is chalked out for reading. Not a master or mate sails under the English flag without his record, even to forecastle fights, being tabulated at Lloyds for inspection by prospective employers, and not a ship is cast away on any inhabitable coast during underwriters' business hours without the event being announced at Lloyds within thirty minutes.
The Setting of the Financial Confrontation
The Royal Exchange contains several specialized rooms that feature prominently in the aftermath of the Titan's destruction. The Chartroom holds the newest charts of all nations, a library of nautical literature, and records of storms, currents, and the whereabouts of derelicts and icebergs. The Captain's room is given over to joy and refreshment, while the Intelligence office is where anxious ones inquire for the latest news of overdue ships. It is in the Captain's room that Mr. Meyer, a corpulent, hook-nosed underwriter with flashing black eyes, retreats after hearing the Crier's announcement that the great Titan is destroyed. He drinks heavily, groaning that the loss will ruin him, and is later assisted home by a clerk. The Intelligence office is crowded with weeping women and worrying men, including Mr. Selfridge, a feeble old gentleman who raises his voice in a quavering scream upon learning that his daughter-in-law is safe but his son and grandchild are missing.
The Legal Battle Over the Insurance
The Royal Exchange is the site where the legal and financial battle over the Titan's insurance is prepared. Mr. Meyer, the heaviest insurer, reads a bulletin announcing that John Rowland, a sailor from the Titan, has been rescued with a child passenger and speaks of a ship cut in half the night before the loss of the Titan. This news prompts the underwriters to suspect that Captain Bryce concealed a collision with the Royal Age. Mr. Meyer, after being roused from a brooding lethargy by shouting underwriters, declares that the concealment will affect the insurance. The attorney for the steamship company argues that the concealment has no bearing on the validity of the policy, but Mr. Meyer insists on fighting in the courts, claiming that having a drunken man on lookout when the Titan struck the iceberg is enough to void the policy. The confrontation culminates in Mr. Meyer's private office on Threadneedle Street, not in the main Exchange hall, but the Exchange itself is where the news breaks and the financial stakes are first assessed.
The Aftermath and Financial Ruin
After the confrontation in Mr. Meyer's office, where Rowland refuses to testify and thus ensures the insurance will be paid, the financial consequences are felt at the Royal Exchange. Mr. Selfridge, who had invested his last farthing—one hundred thousand pounds—in Titan stock, learns that he is a ruined man. He dies of heart failure in Mr. Meyer's office, brought on by the sudden emotion of learning that his granddaughter is safe but that he is financially destroyed. Mr. Meyer, who had feared ruin himself, is ultimately spared because Rowland's refusal to testify forces the insurance to be paid. The Royal Exchange, as the nerve center of maritime commerce and insurance, is the place where the economic fates of the characters are decided and where the story of the Titan's wreck and its cover-up is ultimately broadcast to the world.
