Glossary

Admiralty law (also referred to as Maritime law) is a distinct body of law which governs maritime questions and offenses. It is a body of both domestic law governing maritime activities, and private international law governing the relationships between private entities which operate vessels on the oceans. It deals with matters including marine commerce, marine navigation, marine salvaging, shipping, sailors, and the transportation of passengers and goods by sea. Admiralty law also covers many commercial activities, although land based or occurring wholly on land, that are maritime in character.

Arbitration - a settling of disputes between parties who agree not to go before courts, but rather to accept as final the decision of experts of their choice, in a place of their choice, usually subject to laws agreed in advance and usually under rules which avoid much of the formality, nice­ties, proof and procedure required by the courts.

Bareboat charterparty - is a charter in which the bare ship is char­tered without crew; the charterer, for a stipulated sum taking over the vessel for a stated period of time, with a minimum of restrictions; the charterer appoints the master and the crew and pays all running expenses.

Beneficial owner - a term usually referring to the registered ship­owner, but which may also designate another party having the equitable ownership of the vessel where it is operated under the cloak of a trust.

Bill of lading - a document issued by a carrier, or its agent, to the shipper as a contract of carriage of goods. It is also a receipt for cargo accepted for transportation, and must be presented for taking delivery at the destination.

BIMCO - The Baltic and International Maritime Council. It is a group of shipowners, brokers, agents, clubs and other interested in carriage by sea and unites them in promoting proper shipping practices and in oppos­ing objectionable and unfair import charges, claims, etc.

«Both to blame» clause - a clause inserted into some U.S. bills of lading, which required that in the event of a ship collision for which both vessels were at fault, cargo indemnify its carrying vessel for any amount vessels were at fault, cargo indemnify its carrying vessel for any amount which that vessel had had to pay to the colliding vessel in respect of any claim made by cargo against the colliding vessel.

Bulk carrier - Ship specifically designed to transport vast amounts of cargoes such as sugar, grain, wine, ore, chemicals, liquefied natural gas; coal and oil.

Bunker - fuel consumed by the engines of a vessel.

Cancellation Clause - charterparty clause specifying the last date known, as the canceling date, on which a ship must be available to the charterer at the agreed place. If the ship arrives after the canceling date, the charterer may have the option to cancel the contract.

Canceling Date - last date, agreed in a charterparty, by which a ship must be available to the charterer at the agreed place at the commencement of the contract. If the ship is not available by that date, the charterer may have the option to cancel the charter under certain circumstances and clauses of the charterparty.

Cargoworthiness - fitness of the vessel to carry a specific cargo.

Carrier - a party who contracts to carry goods or passengers by water or the party who actually performs such carriage in whole or in part.

Charterer - a party without a cargo who takes a vessel on charter for a specified period from the owner and then trades the ship to carry cargoes at a profit above the hire rate, or even makes a profit in a rising market by re-letting the ship out to other charterers.

Chartering is an activity within the shipping industry. In some cases a charterer may own cargo and employ a shipbroker to find a ship to deliver the cargo for a certain price, called freight rate.

Chartering negotiation -is normally initiated when a charterer (usually a shipper) enters the market to find a suitable ship to move his product, or when an owner (usually acting through a charterer) enters the market to find employment (i.e. a suitable cargo) for his ship.

Charterparty - as an agreement between two parties regarding lease of a cargo or a vessel. One party offers to lease its vessel or cargo to another party at stipulated rate or under decided conditions. It is a legal contract, made under the laws governing the shipping world between a cargo vessel owner and a charterer.

Classification society - worldwide experienced and reputable societies, which undertake to arrange inspections and advise on the hull and machinery of a ship. An organization that supervises vessels during their construction and afterward, in respect to their seaworthiness, and the placing of vessels in grades or «classes» according to the society's rules for each particular type. It is not compulsory by law that a shipowner have his vessel built according to the rules of any classification society; but in practice, the difficulty in securing satisfactory insurance rates for an unclassed vessel makes it a commercial obligation.

Condition — a term of a contract, the breach of which will allow to the party to demand rescission of the contract (along with damages).

Consignee — the party to whom delivery of the goods is to be made under a contract for the carriage of goods by water.

Containership - a ship constructed in such a way that she can easily stack containers near and on top of each other as well as on deck. A vessel designed to carry standard intermodal containers enabling efficient load­ing, unloading, and transport to and from the vessel.

Contract of Affreightment - this type of charterparty particularly suits to bulk cargos that often need more than one voyage for complete shipment. Under this contract, the owner offers to carry the mentioned cargo at a price decided at rate of per tonnage or per voyage. This type of contract is especially found in industrial cargos like that of coal, stones, building material, metallurgical materials etc.

Coasters - a smaller ships for any category of cargo which are normally not on ocean-crossing routes, but in coastwise trades.

Damages - legal compensation paid to an aggrieved party in a deed or contract.

Deadfreight - a sum of damages payable by the charterer to the ship­owner or intermediate charterer where the charterer loads less cargo then promised in the charterparty.

Deadweight tonnage - is the actual cargo carrying capacity of the vessel, when she is fully loaded with cargo so that the hull is immersed in water up to the Plimsoll marks.

Delivery (of a vessel) - placing of a time chartered ship by the ship­owner at the disposal of the charterer at the beginning of the period of the charter, at the time and place agreed.

Disponent owner - a person, who, while not being the registered owner of a ship, nevertheless has the right to «dispose of it», notably by sub-chartering it to a third party.

Dock charterparty - this type of contract is made on the basis of the port or dock where the vessel is received by the charterer upon leasing or the owner while returning. The exchange happens in areas which are essentially suited to the size of vessel and are called commercial area of the port.

Dry cargo ship - vessel which carriers all merchandise, excluding liquid in bulk.

Dry dock - an enclosed basin into which a ship is taken for under­water cleaning and repairing. It is fitted with water tight entrance gates which when closed permit the dock to be pumped dry.

Dues - charges imposed by the port authorities for a ship's use of docks, canals etc.

Dunnage - various pieces of wood, logs or planks used for wedging between broken stowage in the holds of a ship to prevent the cargo shift­ing and to steady the whole group of packages. Dunnage is additionally useful as the spaces in between enable air to circulate around the cargo.

Employment of the vessel - use of the vessel to carry out the pur­poses for which the charterers wish to use her.

Extension of a charter - prolonging of the period during which a ship is on time charter. An option to extend the charter may be incorporated into the charterparty, very often on the same terms but possibly at a dif­ferent rate of hire.

Freight - is the amount of money paid to the shipowner or shipping line for the carriage of cargo and is thus normally applicable to time chartering

General Average contribution - the monetary contribution required of shipowners and cargo owners (or their respective insurers) in respect of general average expenditures and general average sacrifices. Cargo's claim for general average contributions against the ship is secured by ei­ther a maritime lien or a statutory right in rem., depending on the jurisdic­tion concerned. The shipowner's claim for general average contribution is secured by a possessory lien on the cargo.

Good faith - a principle according which the parties must negotiate and carry out a contract honestly and fairly.

Gross tonnage (GT) - applies to vessels, not to cargo, (0.2+0.02 loglOV) where V is the volume in cubic meters of all enclosed spaces on the vessel.

Grounding - deliberate contact by a ship with the bottom while she is moored or anchored as a result of the water level dropping.

Hague-Rules - governing the carriage of goods by sea and identify­ing the rights and responsibilities of carriers and owners of cargo. These rules were published in 1924 following an international convention and were subsequently given the force of law by many maritime nations.

Hague - Visby Rules - A set of rules, amending the Hague Rules pub­lished in 1968 and subsequently given the force of law by many maritime nations.

Hire - is the financial payment that the owner receives for leasing a manned and equipped vessel to a time charterer

Indemnity - a promise, express or implied, by one party to pay costs incurred by another party as a consequence of acting on its instructions.

Knot - unit of speed in navigation which is the rate of nautical mile (6,080 feet or 1,852 meters) per hour.

Last voyage - is the final voyage before the charterer returns the ves­sel to the owners.

Lien clauses - the shipowner is given a possessory lien either by the common law or by express on the cargo earned. The common law gives the owner a lien for freight, general average contributions and expenses incurred by the master or owner in protecting and preserving the cargo

Liner - a cargo-carrying ship which is operated between scheduled, advertised ports of loading and discharge on a regular basis.

Master - a commander of a merchant ship, when the ship is at sea. He is responsible for navigation and management. He has to give an account in the log Book of all that happens during the voyage and at ports, etc.

Maintenance clause - provides, that the ship owners shall pay the running expenses of the ship and "maintain" her class and keep the vessel in a thoroughly efficient state in hull, machinery and equipment for and during the service.

Merchant shipping - the activity related to use of vessels for convey­ance of cargos, passengers, luggage and mail, fishing and other sea trades, mineral survey and extraction, execution of towing, ice-breaking and res­cue operations, cable laying, as well as for other economic, scientific and cultural purposes.

Net tonnage (NT) - equals gross tonnage minus deductions for space occupied by crew accommodations, machinery, navigation equipment and bunkers. It represents space available for cargo (and passengers). Ca­nal tolls are based on net (registered) tonnage.

Notice of redelivery - a written notice given by the time charterer to the shipowner giving the date when the ship is to be returned to the ship­owner at the end of the period of the charter.

Notice of readiness (NOR) - a paper or telex document urgently issued by a shipmaster that advises a person awaiting a shipment that his ship has arrived and is prepared for the cargo to be unloaded or loaded. When a business receives a notice of readiness, it means that the company needs to make appropriate preparations for their cargo immediately. Off-hire - a provision in a time charter for the suspension of hire.

Overlap - the period of time during which a charterer retains a vessel beyond the stated period of the time charter.

Paramount clause - a clause incorporated in the charterparty or in the bill of lading, which determines which legislation is applicable to the bill of lading.

Period off-hire clause - specifies the events which start and end the ofF-hire period without requiring the charterers to prove that any time was actually lost.

Redelivery (of a vessel) - the returning a vessel to the shipowner at the end of the period of the charter.

Seaworthiness - the term is used to describe a ship which is considered fit for the conditions which it may encounter while underway. At a minimum, a craft is seaworthy if it won't sink, but seaworthiness can get very complex, and it can depend on a number of factors. The term "seaworthiness" is a very broad one, as it does not only include the physical state of the vessel but also extends to other aspects.

Ship - a self-propelled sea-going vessel used in international seaborne trade for the transport of goods, passengers, or both with the exception of vessels of less than 500 gross registered tons.

Ship registration - is the process by which a ship is documented and given nationality of the country that the ship has been documented to. The nationality allows a ship to travel internationally as it is proof of ownership of the vessel.

Shipbroker - are specialist intermediaries/negotiators (i.e. brokers) between shipowners and charterers who use ships to transport cargo, or between buyers and sellers of ships.

Shipowner - a person or firm who owns a vessel.

Shipping Law is a area of maritime law that is concerned with ships and the individuals employed in or around them, as well as the shipment of goods by merchant vessels.

Stevedore - individual or firm that employs longshoremen and who contracts to load or unload the ship.

Sub-charterer - person or company who charters a ship for a party, who is not the owner but who, in turn, has chartered the ship.

Sub-let clause - to sub-let (or to sub-charter, or to assign), said of a charterer, is to charter or hire the ship out to another party, known as the sub-charterer. The sub-let clause gives the charterer permission to sub-let the vessel. Normally the clause holds the charterer responsible for the fulfilment of the contract even if he sub-lets the ship.

Substitution - the replacement of a ship with another ship.

Surveyor - an independent expert appointed to conduct technical in­vestigations.

Tanker - a bulk carrier designed to transport liquid cargo, most often petroleum products.

Time charter - a form of charterparty wherein owner lets or leases his vessel and crew to the charterer for a stipulated period of time.

Trip charter - a voyage charter that uses the format of a time charter.

Underlap - redelivery the vessel to the owner by the charterer prior to the expiry of the agreed charter period.

Unseaworthiness - unfitness of a ship for a particular voyage with a par­ticular cargo.

Vessel's Documents - a documents and certificates required by the law

Voyage charter - a contract whereby the shipowner places the vessel at the disposal of the charterer for one or more voyages, the shipowner being responsible for the operation of the vessel.

Withdrawal - the option given to a shipowner to terminate a time char­ter in the event that an installment of hire is not paid in full or is not paid promptly.

Water craft - the same as vessel and ship