CARING FOR THE CARGO

Caring for the cargo

At common law the ship owner is under an absolute obligation to provide a

seaworthy ship. A seaworthy ship is one is which her hull and machinery,
equipment and crew are fit to take the cargo to sea and come safely through the
kind of weather that she should expect to meet.

If the ship owner fails in this obligation and the failure causes damage to the
cargo, then the cargo owner has a justified claim against the shipowner in
respect of that cargo.

Under the Hague and Hague-Visby Rules this absolute obligation is reduced to an
obligation to exercise due diligence to make the vessel seaworthy. Due diligence
means taking care to ensure a proper, efficient and effective system to maintain,
equip and repair the ship, hull and equipment and to ensure the proper training
and competence of her master and crew.

If a proper and careful check reveals a defect which a normal careful ship owner
would repair, but the defect is not repaired then there has been a failure by that
ship owner to exercise due diligence to make its ship seaworthy.

In addition to the seaworthiness obligations, the ship owner must care for the
cargo from the time of its receipt into the ship owner’s care until the time of its
delivery at the discharge port. Essentially this means taking care to ensure that
what has been put on board the vessel at the load port can be delivered at the
discharge port. It is a duty to ensure that the cargo is not lost, damaged,
contaminated or changed in character in any way.

As between the ship owner and the cargo owner the bill of lading may set out a
period for which the ship owner is responsible for caring for the cargo and
identify who is to be responsible and pay for loading and discharge operations.

These are of course matters of great concern to the ship owner and cargo owner
alike. They are often dealt with by phrases such as FIOST (Free in and out
stowed and trimmed) FIOS and FIO (shorter versions of FIOST and of
diminishing scope) and by expressions such as liner in liner out or ‘free in free
out’.

Compiled by : Capt. Naveen C Tewari, ARI Saket, New Delhi. (1/16) 1

 CARING FOR THE CARGO

All of these expressions. It is important however for the master to be aware of

expressions or abbreviations such as these. If any such abbreviation is used
which clearly goes to the allocation of loading and discharging responsibility (or
indeed any abbreviation which is unknown to the master) then these are matters
which he should report and discuss with the ship owner as soon as possible.

Compiled by : Capt. Naveen C Tewari, ARI Saket, New Delhi. (1/16) 2