Catcher in the sky
Lodged in my mind is the image of Lloyd's underwriter Stephen Merrett leaning out of a spacecraft with his shrimping-net, trying to catch a satellite as it whizzes by. In fact an astronaut armed with some sort of clamp is trying to catch it for him. This is Palapa, the communica- tions satellite launched for Indonesia, which spun off uselessly into the wrong orbit. Palapa and Wester 2, which followed suit, were insured at Lloyd's, with Mr Merrett the leading underwriter. To res- tore and retrieve them would be a classic of enterprise worthy of its place in Lloyd's history. It might go alongside the recovery of the fleet of 40 ships, impounded by the Indonesians, a generation ago, and rescued by the patient diplomacy of the leading underwriter, who was Roy Merrett, Stephen's father.
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