The purpose of sailboats is an obvious one; using the power of wind in their sails, they move across the water from destination to destination. The water is crucial in this equation. They're significantly less good at moving through ice, as Sir Ernest Shackleton and his ship, the Endurance, found out in 1915.
It had been a bad trip for Shackleton to begin with; he'd been beaten to the South Pole by Roald Amundsen and his team. On the return home, the Endurance became trapped by packed sea-ice, which eventually lifted the ship clean out of the water and froze it in place, as we can see here. Amazingly, the crew survived by camping on the ice for 18 months before jumping on life rafts in desperation, eventually reaching an inhabited island. The Endurance had no such luck; eventually the density of the ice became too much for it, and it was destroyed by the crushing force.
To insure one’s house, one’s car or to underwrite a life insurance policy, that is common practice. But who would pay an insurance premium for his/her thumb, legs or smile? Stars, of course.
At the top of the ranking are the legs of Mariah Carey, worth 810 million USD: The diva became, in 2006, the Gillette brand muse for the advertising campaign «Legs of a Goddess». She then took out an insurance policy with London Lloyds to protect her legs, a decision that is far from being insignificant. Among its customers, the London insurer then included several icons of music, such as Bob Dylan or Rod Stewart.
David Beckham’s body insured for 195 million USD: European champion with Manchester United in 1999, David Beckham was in 2006 the most renowned footballer of the planet. In relation to his sporting activities, he took out an insurance cover for his legs. The huge amount paid for his insurance would reportedly exceed the 103 million USD disbursed by Real Madrid for the cover of Christiano Ronaldo in 2009. The fashion model would later extend his insurance cover to his entire body.
15 million USD in insurance for Kim Kardashian’s curves: The curves of Kim Kardashian are her number one beauty asset. The reality TV star, who is crazy about plastic surgery, has underwritten an insurance policy worth 15 million USD to protect her famous butt.
The culinary critic Egon Ronay assured his taste buds: The famous Hungarian culinary critic has insured his taste buds since 1957, for the amount of 400 000 USD. An original insurance policy which allows him to cover his sense of taste without which he will no longer be able to practice his job.