I'm not so sure that he invented the pesky blighters, more that back in Bill's time it was widely thought that something would happen, just that no one knew what. Bill, bless his memory, predicted a malady as the odds were on that one would develop sooner or later. Such thoughts prevailed amongst anglers with the advent of g.r.p. fishing rods, some expert reckoned forty years maximum before some as yet discovered lurgy struck. Whoever that was was wrong as far as fishing rods were concerned but not far off the mark with boats and the then unknown osmosis.