Work Skills

Hill Harmony - Which way now?

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Date: 24/02/2001 Source: UKDC

Every mainstream time charter form will contain a term which places the Master under the orders of the charterers as to the employment of the ship. The Master must follow these orders within the bounds of safety of his ship, crew and cargo. In return, the owners generally receive an indemnity (express or implied) for the consequences of complying with these orders. This should be contrasted with the navigation of the ship. Risks of navigation will generally be owners’ risks. For charterparties incorporating a Clause Paramount, owners will normally be exempted from the consequences of any errors of navigation.

The line drawn between employment and navigation is a fine one. Orders to send a ship to a particular port will be orders as to employment. Likewise, orders as to port rotation. But what about the route the ship takes? Is routing also a matter of employment or a matter of navigation ?

This issue has come under close scrutiny in the case of the HILL HARMONY.

The HILL HARMONY was time chartered down a chain of NYPE charters which contained the usual employment clauses but no special routing clauses. The time charterers, on the advice of Ocean Routes, ordered the ship to proceed from Vancouver to Japan by the northerly, great circle route. The Master had experienced heavy weather on a similar voyage some months before. He disregarded the charterers’ orders and insisted on taking the longer, southerly rhumb line route. The charterers refused to pay for the extra time taken and the bunkers consumed. The disponent owners claimed these sums in London arbitration.

The dispute focused on the employment provisions of the charter. The charterers argued that the Master’s decision was a breach of their orders as to the employment of the ship; or, alternatively, a breach of the obligation to proceed with utmost despatch. The tribunal agreed. The arbitrators held that the routing instructions...