It’s a part of aviation most people don’t think about — until they need it.
On May 6, 1937, when the sky over Lakehurst, N.J., caught fire and burst into tragedy, it was needed desperately.
The insurance policy for the Hindenburg — the German passenger airship that exploded about 70 miles outside New York city eight decades ago — has been unveiled at the New York City Fire Museum on Spring St. in lower Manhattan.
“I’m always looking for something that has never been told, so this is right in my sweet spot,” museum Executive Director Gary Urbanowicz said Thursday. “These are elements of a historic event that often goes unnoticed.”
The frail 10-page Lloyd’s of London document lists underwriters and insurance brokers with the monetary amounts they were willing to pay if the airship were destroyed. In return, the investors would receive a percentage of the insurance premium during the life of the coverage.
“It’s fragile, so much so that someone at one time tried to fix the pages with Scotch tape, which is probably the worst thing you can do with a historical document,” Urbanowicz said.
The policy, in total, was valued at 6 million Reichsmarks, which at the time amounted to $14.9 million. In current dollars, that would translate to about $80 million, according to Forbes.
The money went to the families of the 13 passengers and 22 crewmen who died when the Hindenburg caught fire and exploded as it tried to dock with a mooring mast at the Naval Air Station in Lakehurst. A crewman on the ground was also killed by falling debris.
At the time, the Daily News reported that the zeppelin was “blown asunder and consumed by flames” some “300 feet above the heads of a thousand terrified spectators.” Ninety-seven people were on board.
Historians and descendants of the victims will mark the 80th anniversary of the disaster on Saturday.
Urbanowicz said the insurance policy had been in storage in the Fire Museum since the 1980s. The paperwork was acquired from the Harold V. Smith Museum — which focused on insurance policies. The Smith museum, which was located on Maiden Lane in lower Manhattan, donated its archive to the Fire Museum when it closed, Urbanowicz said. “We have so much in storage that never gets displayed,” he said. “But with the 80th anniversary of the disaster coming, I knew that this was the right time to pull it out.”
