“And your policy covers Pole Star even though it’s clear that someone blew up the ship, that it didn’t just crack due to bad workmanship?”

Ferrant crossed one storklike leg over the other. “That was one of the first questions we went into. As far as we can tell, it was not blown up as an act of war. There are other exclusions under the policy, but that’s the main one … Unless Bledsoe destroyed the ship himself.”

“There’d have to be a significant financial advantage to him for doing so,” I pointed out. “If he collected the value of the hull and could invest it while he rebuilt the ship, there might be some, but otherwise it doesn’t sound like it.”

“No,” Hogarth said impatiently. “There isn’t any point to ruining a brand-new ship like the Lucella. Now if it were one of those old clunkers that cost more to operate than they bring in revenues, I’d see it, but not a thousand-foot self-unloader.”

“Like Grafalk’s, you mean,” I said, remembering the Leif Ericsson running into the side of the wharf my first day down at the Port. “He’s better off collecting the insurance money than running his ships?”

“Not necessarily,” said Hogarth uneasily. “It’d depend on the extent of the damage. You’re thinking of the Leif Ericsson, aren’t you? He’ll have to pay for the damage to the wharf. That’s going to run him more than the cost of repairing the Ericsson’s hull.”

Bledsoe had told me he wasn’t liable for the damage to the lock. I asked Hogarth about that. He made a face. “That’s another one that’s going to tie the lawyers up for a decade or two. If Bledsoe was responsible for the damage to the ship, which in turn damaged the forward lock gates, he’s liable. If we can find the real culprit, he’s liable. That’s what we’d like to do: find whoever blew up the ship so we can subrogate against him—or her.”

I looked a question.

“Subrogate—get him to repay us for whatever we pay Bledsoe. And if we don’t find the real culprit, your rich Uncle Sam is going to pay for the lock. He’ll probably have to anyway—no one could afford to replace that. They’ll just prosecute and send whoever did it to jail for twenty years. If they can find him.” The phone rang and he answered it. The caller seemed to be his wife: he told her placatingly that he’d be out of the office in twenty minutes and please to hold dinner for him.

He turned to me with an aggrieved expression. “I thought you came by because you had some hot information on the Lucella. All we’ve been doing is answering your questions.”