Charterer

“ The charterer knew, as well as the master, that the ship would heel or roll at sea, and that the cribbing must be made sufficiently strong to hold the cargo on deck. We see no more reason for imposing responsibility on the ship for such an omission by the charterer than for the master's failure to prevent the charterer from stowing cargo in such manner that it is damaged by heat, The Thomas P. Beal (C. C. A.) 11 F.2d) 49 ”

“ A time charter party shall take effect only after an owner or lessee of a ship stipulates to have a charterer use for a navigation a ship manned by crew and provided with navigational equipments for a specified period, and the charterer stipulates to pay the hire calculated by the period. ”

“ Unless the ship herself is let to hire, and the owner parts with the possession, command, and navigation of the same, the charterer or freighter is not to be regarded as the owner for the voyage, as the master, while the owner retains the possession, command, and navigation of the ship, is the agent of the general owner and the mariners are regarded as in his employment and he is responsible for their conduct. ”

“ After the commencement of a voyage, the charterer or the shipper may not terminate the charter party unless he pays the full amount of the freight, advances, the moorage charges, the amount of his contribution to general average or rescue from marine accidents, and pays compensation for any damages arising from the unloading or provides adequate security therefor. ”

“ Demurrage and Laydays.—
Time is usually of the essence of maritime and commercial transactions. Both parties must be punctual in the performance of their obligations. The shipowner must have the vessel at the appointed place and time for delivery to the charterer or to receive the cargo, as the agreement requires. The charterer must be on hand to receive her or to deliver the cargo for loading. The ship must pursue the voyage without deviation or delay. The consignee must be ready to receive his goods on their arrival. ”

“ Where a vessel is so hired that the charterer has the exclusive possession, control and management, appointing the master and hiring the crew, there is said to be a demise of the ship and a temporary ownership in the charterer. He then becomes responsible for her obligations as if he were the real owner and has similar rights of limitation. ”

“ A charter-party for a voyage is a formal agreement made between the owner of the vessel and the charterers by which it is agreed that the vessel ``being tight, staunch and strong, and every way fitted for the voyage,'' shall load at a certain named place a full cargo either of goods of a specified description or of general merchandise, and being so loaded shall proceed with all possible despatch either to a specified place or to a place to be named at a specified port of call, and there deliver the cargo to the charterers or their assigns. ”

“ Under what circumstances, if under any, a charterer who has control and possession of a vessel under a charter party requiring him, at his own cost, to provide for necessary supplies and repairs, may pledge the credit of the vessel, it is not necessary now to determine. ”

“ Respondent argues that the responsibility of the ship, when loaded by the charterer, is limited to faulty stowage of cargo which endangers the ship, and that when the cargo alone is imperiled, as is contended was the case here, ensuing loss must be borne by the charterer. ”

“ Time charters frequently provide {103} that in the event of loss of time arising from the breakdown of machinery, lack of men or supplies for more than twenty-four hours, the payment of charter hire shall be suspended for the period from which she is inoperative, but if the vessel is driven into port by circumstances of weather or accident to cargo, the loss of time due to these causes shall fall upon the charterer. ”

“ A time charter-party is a contract between the shipowner and charterers, by which the shipowner agrees to let and the charterers to hire the vessel for a specified term for employment, either generally in any lawful trade or upon voyages within certain limits. A place is usually named at which the vessel is to be re-delivered to the owners at the end of the term, and the freight is payable until such re-delivery; the owner almost always pays the wages of the master and crew, and the charterers provide coals and pay port charges ”

“ By the express terms of the charter-party, the charterers were bound to order the vessel 'to a safe, direct, Norwegian or Danish port, or as near thereunto as she can safely get, and always lay and discharge afloat.' The clear meaning of this is that she must be ordered to a port which she can sefely enter with her cargo, or which, at least, has a safe anchorage outside where she can lie and discharge afloat. ”

“ Any difference in freight to be settled before the vessel's departure from port of loading. If in vessel's favor, in cash, less insurance. If in charterers' favor, by captain's draft upon his consignees, payable ten days after arrival of vessel at port of discharge. Vessel to have an absolute lien upon the cargo for all freight, dead freight, and demurrage. ”

“ The bills of lading, three in number, show no interest in any other person.
The charter-party was made by the master with one Begbie, and stipulated that the ship should take on board a cargo of lawful merchandise goods and deliver the same at Nassau to the charterers' agent at that port. ”

“ Every master of any vessel of the burden of fifty tons or upward, bound from a port in one State to a port in any other than an adjoining State, except vessels of the burden of seventy-five tons or upward, bound from a port on the Atlantic to a port on the Pacific, or vice versa, shall, before he proceeds on such voyage, make an agreement in writing or in print, with every seaman on board such vessel except such as shall be apprentice or servant to himself or owners, declaring the voyage or term of time for which such seaman shall be shipped. ”

“ A carrier's first duty, and one that is implied by law, when he is engaged in transporting goods by water, is to provide a seaworthy vessel, tight and stanch, and well furnished with suitable tackle, sails, or motive power, as the case may be, and furniture necessary for the voyage. She must also be provided with a crew, adequate in number and sufficient and competent for the voyage, with reference to its length and other particulars, and with a competent and skilful master, of sound judgment and discretion ”

“ The captain was expected to “break his orders in any part,” if he could drive a better bargain than his employer had been able to foresee at a distance of ten thousand miles from the market. Merchants as well as navigators, the old-time shipmaster found compensation for these arduous responsibilities in the “privileges” which allowed him a liberal amount of cargo space on their own account, as well as a commission on the sales of the freight out and back. His own share of the profits of two or three voyages to the Far East might enable him to buy and ship and freight a vessel for himself. ”

“ A large trading-ship was commanded by a captain, appointed by the merchants owning the cargo, and having general control over the conduct of the voyage, the ports of call, dates of sailing, &c, and by the master, who navigated the ship and controlled the crew. The captain was not necessarily a professional seaman, as the master, of course, invariably was. The composition of the crews in a well-found merchant fleet is illustrated by Hakluyt’s account of Willoughby’s expedition. ”

“ While in port, the chief mate has much more the control of the vessel than when at sea. As there is no navigating or working of the vessel to be done, the master has little to engage him, except transactions with merchants and others on shore, and the necessary general directions to the mate, as to the care of the ship. Beside the work upon the ship and rigging while in port, the chief mate has the charge of receiving, discharging, stowing and breaking out the cargo. ”

“ The captain receives payment, whether in cash or commodities, and weighs the camwood, or measures the palm-oil, at the merchant's store. If credit be given, the merchant is responsible, and receives a perquisite of five per cent on all sales. The captain takes up his residence on shore, and sends for goods from his vessel, as they are wanted; while the mate and crew remain on board, to despatch and receive the cargo. Every vessel has in its employ several Kroomen, by whom all the boat-service is performed. ”

“ Amongst our sailors was a Frenchman, and he, being one of our boat's crew, had made the acquaintance of his countrymen on board the other ship in his various trips, it being the custom of the captains then in port to call upon each other and all to go ashore in the one boat. Thus they benefited by having the full complement of their crew on board to work cargo—which they had to do in those days, except on the occasion when their particular boat had to act as ferry. ”

“ She despatched a tender to the Downs to press men from homeward bound merchant ships. This method of getting a crew was the best then in use, because the men obtained by it were trained seamen, which those obtained from the gaols, the gin-shops, and the slums seldom were. It was an extremely cruel method. A man within sight of his home, after a voyage of perhaps two {xv} years, might be dragged from his ship (before his wages were paid) to serve willy-nilly in the Navy, at a third of the pay, for the next half-dozen years. An impartial conscription seems noble beside such a method. ”

“ The safest rule for the master is, to bear in mind that his duty is to prosecute the voyage, and that all his acts must be done for this purpose, and in good faith. If a necessity arises in a foreign port for the repairing or supplying of the ship, he must, in the first instance, make use of any property of the owner he may have under his control, other than cargo. ”

“ McLean, engineer surveyor to the Marine Board, told us that the certificate was for an unloaded ship. You cannot disregard that certificate altogether. Still you must bear this in mind, that though a vessel may, in the opinion of the Marine Board, be sea-worthy, the captain, or mate, may load her in such a way as to make her unsea-worthy. There is some evidence that the cargo put in her was built so high in the hold as to make her less stable than if it had been better stowed. ”

“ The law also makes the chief mate the successor to the master in case the latter should die, or be unable to perform the duties of his office; and this without any action on the part of the crew when at sea, or of the consignees of the vessel when in harbour abroad. It is always important, therefore, that to the practical seamanship and activity necessary for the discharge of the proper duties of his office the mate should add a sufficient knowledge of navigation, to be able to carry the ship on her voyage should anything happen to the master. ”

“ The laws regulating navigation make the captain answerable for the effects of a sailor who dies during the voyage, and it is either a law or a custom, established for convenience, that the captain should soon hold an auction of his things, in which they are bid off by the sailors, and the sums which they give are deducted from their wages at the end of the voyage. ”

“ When the morning came, I went again to the ship, and when the people came on deck, asked them for the captain, whom I should not have known by his dress, which was very nearly similar to that of the sailors. On being asked if he did not wish to hire a hand, to help to load his ship, he told me I might go to work amongst the men, if I chose, and he would pay me what I was worth.
My object was to procure employment on board the ship, and not to get wages; and in the course of this day I found means to enter the hold of the ship several times, and examine it minutely. ”

“ You are in command here, but this boat is under charter and just now I represent the man who owns that charter. If you have got to cruise around to test the engine and shaft well and good, but if you are merely cruising around for the fun of it I say go back to where we came from—none of us want to do any cruising to-day. ”

“ But, when in company, the whole officers of both ships above named, are conjunctly to come on board either ship at the summons of Captains Rogers, Dover, and Courtney, or any two of them, and to be the council referred to in our general orders, to determine all matters and things that may arise or be necessary for the general good daring the whole voyage. In case of the death, sickness, or desertion of any of the above officers in either ship, the rest who are of the council of that ship shall convene on board their own ship, and chose another fit person into that office and council. ”

“ Whenever the goods intended for transportation are shipped on board, or delivered to the carrier or his agent for that purpose, it is the duty of the master, in the absence of any stipulation as to the period of sailing, to commence the voyage within a reasonable time, and he must proceed on the voyage in the direct and usual route to the port of delivery without any unnecessary deviation. ”

“ There he finds no friend to receive and guide him, but rapacious agents ready to take every advantage of his ignorance, with an eye to his scanty purse. A host of captains, mates, and sailors, eager to make up so many heads for the voyage, pack them aboard like sheep, and cross the Atlantic, either to New York or to Quebec, just as they have been able to entice a cargo to either port. ”