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The owner is therefore on risk for damage arising due to unsafe characteristics of the port and cannot hope to pass on liability to their charterer for any ensuing loss. Where there is no warranty of port safety, the shipowner is absolutely liable to have the vessel call at the port. The position is however different where the charter terms identify a named port with no warranty of safety. Where the port is warranted safe, this will encompass all the berths within the port and the charterer will therefore be on risk for damage arising due to unsafe characteristics of the berth. These are some of the typical issues which arise where the charterer has warranted the safety of the port. The plausibility of this may depend on the dominance of the swell conditions and whether other vessels at the port can be shown to have suffered similar incidents. In essence, the charterer will be arguing that the port or berth was actually safe and the true cause of the damage was the owner’s failure to exercise good seamanship or the unseaworthiness of the vessel’s lines. The charterer may challenge the Master’s decision not to use hold-in tugs. The adequacy of the lines in terms of size, age, wear and appropriate rotation may also be under scrutiny. Consequently, the charterer’s defence may call into question the vessel’s mooring arrangement, including the number of lines and the appropriate use of bow, stern and spring lines. Swell conditions may develop seasonally.įor the Owner to have a good claim, the damage must also not really be attributable to a failure to exercise “good navigation and seamanship”.
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#BERTH VESSEL MEANING SERIES#
Wind waves are generated by the immediate local wind whereas swell is a series of mechanical waves generated by distant weather systems over an extended duration. Rather, the danger experienced must be characteristic of the port or berth for that time of year. Those swell conditions must also not be an “abnormal occurrence”, which means the Owner cannot claim against the Charterer for freak events.
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The vessel’s size and draft may be an issue if they render the ship especially vulnerable to movement under the prevailing swell conditions. The “particular ship” must therefore be suitable for the port or berth in question at the material time. The Eastern City 2 Lloyd’s Rep 127, 131 per Sellers LJ “a port will not be safe unless, in the relevant period of time, the particular ship can reach it, use it and return from it without, in the absence of some abnormal occurrence, being exposed to danger which cannot be avoided by good navigation and seamanship” The English law definition of a safe port or berth for this purpose has not changed for sixty years: Whether this claim is a good one will be a mixed question of fact and law. The owner may seek to attribute such damage to a breach of the safe port or safe berth warranties in the charter and try to recover their losses from the charterer. At this time of year, the Club often receives reports of vessels calling at ports in the eastern tropical areas of the Pacific where the vessel’s mooring lines have parted at the berth and this has been blamed on swell conditions. Liability for damage arising out of swell conditions at the berthĪ vessel’s ability to perform cargo operations can be affected by ocean swell.