The charterers can send the ship to ports in which the ship can be reached for the purpose of handling cargo or carrying out any other activity with the shore and as required by the Charterer. … [Read more...]

In some charterparties the deadweight capacity of the vessel is shown with the addition "all told" (DWAT), which means the capacity mentioned in the charterparty represents the total deadweight capacity including bunkers, water, provisions, dunnage, stores, spare parts, crew, passengers and their effects. In order to arrive at the deadweight capacity for cargo (DWCC) deductions have to be made for bunkers, water, etc. … [Read more...]

A range of ports between Antwerp and Hamburg in Europe. If the owner agrees with this range of ports he accepts that Antwerp and Hamburg are warranted by the Charterer as being "safe" but he may have to dispute the "safety" of any other port nominated within the range. This description of a range of ports is sometimes abbreviated to "AH.R". … [Read more...]

This suggests a range of ports in the Arabian Gulf (Iranian or the Persian Gulf) where a ship can load or discharge cargo. … [Read more...]

The agency fee is the remuneration for the agents who have attended to the ship's business during its stay at their port. In most maritime countries fixed scales of charges covering agency work and the clearance of tramp vessels have been agreed between the local shipbrokers or their organisations. … [Read more...]

This term is a somewhat old form of describing a contract to carry goods by sea, that is a "contract of carriage". Such a contract is now more correctly and simply referred to as a "charter". "Affreightment", comes from French and means "the hiring of a ship to carry cargo".However, in modern shipping terminology, a "Contract of Affreightment" (COA) has a specialised meaning. It is now a contract to move a (large) volume of cargo over an agreed period of time. Examples are VOLCOA and INTERCOA 80.Under the Hague Rules or Hague-Visby Rules, a "contract of carriage" also means a bill of … [Read more...]

As a rule, the freight on cargo shipped under a charterparty is payable at destination upon delivery to consignees.If the ship or cargo is lost before the destination, the shipowner is not entitled to freight. (However, under some legal systems he can claim that a part of the freight has been earned-and he has a right to it in proportion to the distance covered from the loading port.) To protect the shipowner's right to freight even if he cannot deliver the cargo to its agreed destination an express clause in the charterparty may provide for the whole or part of the freight to be payable … [Read more...]

In some charterparties, a certain percentage of commission is due to charterers on the amount of freight or hire. Address commission is almost equivalent to a reduction in the rate of freight, a few special services are performed by charterers in return. However, the charterer will deduct the amount before paying the shipowner what is due. The commission is like a rebate for the business from the charterers.If no address commission is due, the vessel is "free of address''. … [Read more...]

When some events take place preventing one party from fully carrying out his obligations under a charterparty and that event occurs without any human intervention, this person is relieved from any liability to compensate the other party to the contract. This exception to liability is generally implied in the law and practice of shipping but the exception can also be found as an express term in a charterparty. For example, in the New York Produce Exchange (NYPE) time charterparty, clause 16 states: "16. Should the vessel be lost, money paid in advance and not earned . . . shall be returned to … [Read more...]

Many charterparties contain the word "about" when describing something, such as the speed of the vessel or its fuel consumption or the cargo to be loaded. The word tends to remove the strict responsibility that would be placed on the party making the statement that the description is absolutely correct if there was some departure from the description. The word "about" means "more or less" and gives some (uncertain) margin of accuracy or allows some (equally uncertain) tolerance. … [Read more...]