through their exposure to war conditions.

The 'Second seaman's' name, distinguishes it from other sorts of maritime war risks insurance, (eg: war risks insurance of the hull and equipment of the vessel itself, war risks protection and indemnity insurance, or war risks (ship) builder's insurance).

('Second seaman' seems to be, or have been in the past, the name or 'naval rating'(rank) of a low ranking seaman in the US navy, or something like that - I don't know whether or not American merchant seamen can (or have been) also called by the same name, or whether it's from civilian seamen being regarded as some kind of reservists, analagous to the British Merchant Navy. But that's just where the name comes from. It seems to be important for civilian crew on civilian ships, chartered, requisitioned to support military operations or encouraged to continue trade in dangerous situations, by the US government (MARAD))


eg:
"The [US] navy....That's why my rank only went up one time. I went from second seaman to first seaman. Second seaman had only one stripe, first class seaman, had two stripes, but no ranks or nothing. Just two little white stripes. That's all. Nothing else."
Francisco Chipelo
Interviewed by Paul Ribiero
http://vm.uconn.edu/~ww2oh/fc1.htm

it's interesting that this site
http://navysite.de/navy/enlisted-rates.htm
says that 'seaman recruits' (SR) have one upper sleeve stripe, as above (apparently they were called 'Apprentice Seamen' until 1948),

but
http://www2.powercom.net/~rokats/armedforces-ww2.html

says that in 1940's there was a rating of "seaman 2nd class" below "seaman first class" and above "apprentice seaman".

There are still some ratings called "seaman" in the today's US navy.
That doesn't seem to matter - it seems to be a general expresion which has been used in the industry for a long time, just as war risks cover for crew has a long history, unfortunately.


"[individual] CREW PERSONNEL FILES.
These files maintained by the Master onboard the vessel with copies to the Ship Manager shall contain at a minimum.....Designation of change of beneficiary for second seaman's War Risk Insurance...."
[ie: who gets the payment, if the crew member becomes a casualty]"

http://marad.dot.gov/acquisition/PDF/Section C.doc

it describes how MARAD (US Maritime Administration) maintains and aquires - or just encourages continued availability of, for strategic reasons - logistics/transport ships, to support operations or ensure delivery of supplies in time of danger. These ships are maintained and operated by civilian contractors, and wartime risks insurance is provided for the crew.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cache:29mpOaxJn4IJ:a257.g.a...

describes war risks 'second seaman' insurance contrasted with other some other types of war risks insurance (talked about above), and describes how the casulaties have to be reported.

http://www.navyleague.org/sea_power/almanac_jan_03_201.php
is useful background on MURAD promoting the availability of US flagged shipping, in case of emergency.

Some documents use phrases like "[insurance] policies commonly called Second Seamen's" - it seems to be a well known name (in US insurance circles?) for war risks insurance to cover crew members in general, not just for a specific rank of 'second seamen'.

There must be lots of old sea dogs and insurance experts out there who know all about this - please fill in the gaps and correct me (but gently :-)



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Note added at 10 hrs 48 mins (2004-11-04 21:49:23 GMT)
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MARAD is closely involved in providing these Second Seaman policies, and Alexander\'s reference is very useful.

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Note added at 11 hrs 33 mins (2004-11-04 22:34:41 GMT)
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typos. \'contrasted with some other types\', \'casualties\', \'Second seaman\'s\'...

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Note added at 23 hrs 4 mins (2004-11-05 10:05:26 GMT)
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typo. \'general expression...\'

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Note added at 23 hrs 7 mins (2004-11-05 10:08:05 GMT)
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\'acquires...\'

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Note added at 5 days (2004-11-09 12:46:43 GMT)
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One point I\'m not clear about - is Second seamen\'s cover just war risks cover for civilan crew (as it seems), or does it extend to naval personnel.