Plimsoll was forced to apologize for his comments, but his campaign led to the Merchant Shipping Act of 1876, which required every vessel to have a mark showing its maximum level of submergence to prevent overloading: the Plimsoll Line. (The term also gave rise to a popular style of rubber-lined gym shoe.) The legislation helped, as far as it went, although it didn’t take away the financial incentive for scuttling. And the Lloyd’s insurers whose cash kept the shipwreckers in business escaped Plimsoll’s ire—and any public reckoning.
