Affreightment

The charterer agrees to pay a specified price, called freight, for the carriage of the goods or the use of the ship.

The rights and obligations of the ship-owner and the freighter depend, as in the case of all parties to contracts, upon the terms of the agreement entered into between them.

This is done either by statutory enactment, as by Part VIII of the Merchant Shipping Act 1804, which deals with the liability of ship-owners—or by established rules of common law, as, for instance, the rule that the common carrier is absolutely responsible for the safe delivery of the goods carried,[2] unless prevented by an act of God or enemies of the Queen.

It is, therefore, convenient to consider first cases of this kind where there is no express agreement, oral or written, except as to the freight and destination of the goods, and where, consequently, the rights and obligations of the parties as to all other terms of carriage depend wholly upon the rules of law, remembering always that these same rules apply when there is a written contract, except insofar as they are qualified or negated by the terms of such contract.

[2] When there is no written contractual agreement, the rights of the parties depend on the rules of law, or on the warranties or promises that, though not expressed, are implied as part of the relationship between the shipper and carrier.

[2] The obligations on the one side and the other are: In other words, the shipowner has a lien on the goods carried for the freight payable in respect of the carriage.

c. 60)), however, specify that the shipowner is not liable for loss that happens without his actual fault or privity, by fire on board the ship, or by the robbery or embezzlement of—or making away with gold or silver or jewellery of a nature and value not declared in writing at the time of shipment.

[2] This article outlines the important obligations of shipper and shipowner, where no terms of carriage have been agreed, except as to the freight and destination of the goods, are such as have been described above.

[3] The document used today first appeared centuries ago as a bill (account) presented to shippers for all charges incurred by the cargo until properly secured on board.

Under this type of carriage, the bill of lading assumes two main tasks, as cargo receipt and property title.

In liner shipping it assumes a triple identity: property title, cargo receipt and carriage contract.

In tramp shipping, object of this wiki entry, the carriage contract is the charter party.

[citation needed] The difficulty of construing the terms of bills of lading with regard to the excepted perils, often expressed in obscure and inexact language, has given rise to much litigation, the results of which are recorded in the law reports.

The words of the contract must always be considered with reference to these rules, which are founded on the well-established customs of merchants recognized and formulated by law.

A charter-party for a voyage is a formal agreement made between the owner of the vessel and the charterers, in which they agree that the vessel will load a specific cargo at a specific place—and the ship, once loaded will go directly to a specified place, or to a place to be named at a specified port of call,[4] where the cargo will be delivered.

There is usually also a clause that requires that the merchant bear the risk and expense to bring the cargo to the ship and collect it on delivery.

If no demurrage is provided for by the charter-party, and the vessel is not loading or discharging beyond the lay days, the shipowner can claim damages for the loss suffered by the detention of the ship.

[4] In other cases, if the vessel is detained beyond the fixed number of demurrage days, the ship owner can recover damages for detention.

The master may guard against this difficulty by refusing to sign bills of lading that do not preserve the shipowner's lien for full chartered freight.

However a difficulty often arises from an improvident clause in the charter-party that requires him to sign bills of lading as presented.

[5] The time charter-party usually names a place where the vessel must be re-delivered to the owners at the end of the term, and the freight is payable until then.

In the language of the ordinary time charter-party the ship is let to the charterers—but there is no true demise, because the vessel remains in the possession of the shipowner.

[6] Certain rights and obligations arise out of the relationship between shipowner and cargo-owner in cases of extraordinary peril or urgency during a voyage.

An emergency may require that the master, without waiting for authority or instructions, incur expense or make sacrifices as agent—not just for his employer, the shipowner, but also for the cargo-owner.

[6] For these purposes the master is obliged to incur expense, of which some, such as the cost of ship repairs, is for the benefit of the shipowner.