IN THIS ISSUE
1. Shippingâs humanitarian crisis.
2. Easily forgotten â  Michael Grey comments
3. Force Majeure under review
4. Wakashio investigation and comment
5. Tugs on station
6. Human rights arbitration
7. Donât do it again
8. Exceeding laytime
9. TT Club: supply chain security
10. Liquefaction dangers
11. Lifesaving appliances
12. Indian Supreme Court ruling on abandoned cargo
13. Cargo screening tool for dangerous goods
14. Indian multimodal legislation
15. Benchmarking crew wage costs
Notices & Miscellany
Readersâ responses to our articles are very welcome and, where suitable, will be reproduced:
Write to: contactus@themaritimeadvocate.com
1. Shippingâs humanitarian crisis
A humanitarian crisis is taking place at sea and urgent action is needed to protect seafarersâ health and ensure the safety of shipping, the IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim has warned. In a strong statement issued ahead of the General Assembly of the United Nations, he called on governments to take swift action to resolve the crew change crisis.
It is estimated that more than 300,000 seafarers and marine personnel are currently stranded at sea and unable to be repatriated despite the expiry of their contracts. A similar number of seafarers have been unable to join ships and relieve them. This is due to restrictions imposed by several governments in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, including restrictions on travel, embarkation and disembarkation in ports, quarantine measures, reductions in available flights and limits on the issuing of visas and passports.
Mr Lim said that resolving the crew change crisis will require a âwhole of governmentâ approach involving several ministries. He reiterated his call to all Member States to designate seafarers as key workers providing an essential service, and to implement the IMO-approved Protocols to allow for safe and secure crew changes. The IMO Secretary-General also insisted on the importance of removing other barriers to crew changes, such as visa and travel restrictions, and of providing seafarers with immediate access to medical care and medical facilities on shore, when needed.
Mr Lim has invited Member States to raise the issue of seafarers and the crew change crisis during the upcoming High-Level Week of the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, beginning on 22 September 2020. ILO, IMO and the UN Global Compact will host a side event during that week in order to raise the visibility of the crew change crisis on World Maritime Day, 24 September 2020.
2. Easily forgotten â Michael Grey comments
âSeafarers at the core of shippingâs futureâ might seem somewhat an obvious observation â a bit like suggesting that the sea is a necessary adjunct to the flotation of ships. It is, in case it has escaped your notice, the IMOâs âWorld Maritime Themeâ for 2021, and it is clear, bearing in mind the worldâs treatment of this important workforce in 2020, something that needs to be yelled from the rooftops.
IMO would like its annual campaign to increase the visibility of seafarers, which is harder than it seems, as few among our populations, preoccupied with their Covid concerns, would ever think about them. But it is worth considering that unlike all those millions of folk who have been largely idle since the pandemic struck, or cheerfully WFH, itâs the seafarers who have stopped the world starving, and prevented your lights going out.
Well, you might say thatâs their job, like the dustmen and supermarket delivery drivers and postmen and farmers who never ceased their activities even during lockdown. But what nobody seems to appreciate, is that unlike all those other heroes of the pandemic, the seafarers never stopped at the end of their shifts, keeping on working well beyond the end of their long contracts, because there was no relief for them.
In ports around the world, officials whose job was to say ânoâ, denied these invisible workers their right to shore leave, making it clear that they were to stay aboard their ships, and that there was no possibility of a crew change. There were endless excuses â there were no hotels available in which waiting crew might be quarantined before their ships arrived, or until an aircraft might take them home. It was always someone elseâs problem and the easiest thing to tell the master that he had to push on to the next port, where help might be available. Everyone knew that it probably wouldnât be.
Listening to someone waxing lyrically on the radio today on the human rights of refugees and illegal asylum seekers, I thought that some emphasis on the human rights of seafarers might be nice. It would be interesting to see some sort of legal challenge, on behalf of seafarers, focussing on the denial of rights to which others are accustomed. Rights to a family life, perhaps, or in the case of months on end without setting foot on land might be considered âcruel and unusual punishmentâ. There have been ports where seafarers wanting urgent medical or dental treatment have had this denied. There have been other places where positively vituperative campaigns have been stirred up by the local media, suggesting that the ships coming into their ports, bringing the goods they could not do without, and in which their exports will be carried, will be laden with disease.
The industryâs institutions and fair minded employers have done their utmost to raise the plight of these essential workers with governments and there have indeed been successes in repatriating crew who have been at sea for ridiculous lengths of time, often well beyond legal limits. There are some nations which have been prepared to categorise seafarers as the âessential workersâ which they are, some ports and governments which have gone that extra mile.
One of the real consequences of this invisibility of the seafaring workforce is the complete inability to even imagine what life is like aboard ship, under this appalling regime. The ships, and their goods, keep coming, but no landsman ever has a clue what goes on the other side of the dock wall. Outside the specialised cruise ship sector with their considerable shipboard populations, the individual shipâs complements are too small to make any waves.
What a miserable life to contemplate, one of apparently endless work, as the voyage goes on, and on, with no prospect of it terminating. No chance of a brief visit to the shops, with the ship in port, no possibility of getting beyond the end of the gangway. Think of a forty day voyage at âeconomicalâ speed in your steel box, and only being able to smell the land or glimpse a tree from the top of the superstructure, when your ship finally berths. What is there to recommend in such a life?
And think on those thousands of seafarers who are on leave, but financially unsupported and unable to join the ships they need to earn the money to feed their families. Shipping companies, agencies, all jumping through bureaucratic hoops as they try and negotiate the changing regulatory minefield. There are quite extraordinary journeys criss-crossing the earth, as seafarers make their journeys home, or attempt to get to work. Most, invariably with little logic, will involve weeks in quarantine.
You might suggest that this pandemic is a one-off and desperate times need appropriate measures, but it is the failure to even recognise the needs of this essential workforce that sticks in the craw. Maybe we can expect nothing better, if you look back to the way that merchant seafarers have been treated over the years, in both war and peace. Essential workers they might be, but very easily forgotten.
Michael Grey is the former editor of Lloydâs List.
3. Force Majeure under review
With an increasing focus on force majeure due to the Covid-19 outbreak, BIMCO has gathered a drafting team to develop a free-standing force majeure clause for use in a variety of contracts.
Successfully invoking force majeure under a charterparty or other contract depends on many factors. One essential element for contracts governed by English law is that the agreement must contain a clause that defines what constitutes a force majeure event and sets out the circumstances under which the clause can be invoked to excuse liability for non-performance. That is because force majeure is not a free-standing legal concept under English law, as opposed to some civil law countries such as France, where it is written into the Code Civil. English law operates instead with frustration, which has a reputation of being almost impossible to attain.
Although several BIMCO contracts include a force majeure clause, this clause was never published as a stand-alone clause in BIMCOâs clause library. The drafting team met for the first time on 1-2 September to discuss issues such as:
â˘Â   Who the clause should benefit and what the threshold for invoking force majeure should be.
â˘Â   What should qualify as a force majeure event for the purpose of the clause.
â˘Â   What the consequences of a force majeure event should be, for example, non-liability for damages, suspension of performance, or termination.
â˘Â   Whether different force majeure clauses should be developed for different types of contracts. A force majeure clause in a voyage charter party would need to provide for different consequences than in a ship sale and purchase contract due to the nature of these contracts.
The experts on the drafting team â Inga Frøysa, Klaveness, Nicola Ioannou, Oceanfleet, Peri Ertugruloglu, Glencore Agriculture, Rory Butler, HFW, Andrew Rigden Green, Stephenson Harwood, and Philip Stephenson, The Standard Club – will continue their deliberations at the next meeting in October. contracts@bimco.org
4. Wakashio investigation and comment
Investigation into the circumstances surrounding the grounding of the Panama-flagged bulker Wakashio are ongoing, with the detention of the master in Mauritius. The Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) has issued an initial statement about the investigation, which is still in the data collection phase. In the statement AMP says:
âAs far as the evidence shows, it has been known, through statements by the same crew, that the change of course is produced by indications of the captain of the boat, who gave instructions to approach about 5 miles away from the coast of Isla Mauricio, looking for a telephone and Internet signal, so that the crew members could communicate with their families.
âIt should be noted that the captain of the ship, the chief engineer and the first officer were on the navigation bridge when this improper approach took place, which caused a dangerous situation alerted, in the first instance, by the Mauritian authorities.
The last position taken in the ECDIS (Integrated Nautical Charts and Navigation Equipment System) was at 1802 LT, and the ship grounding was recorded at 1925 LT.
According to the analysts, with a safe guard and applying good seamanship practices, a proper analysis of the situation would have allowed taking the pertinent actions to correct the course and avoid the accident.
On the navigation bridge there were people with enough experience in assessing the problem. An erroneous assessment of the Electronic Nautical Chart could also be verified, since it seems that the wrong chart was being used and with the wrong scale, which made it impossible to properly verify the approach to the coast and shallower waters, the researchers add in their preliminary report.
The lack of supervision and monitoring of the navigation equipment, the distraction generated when the officer of the watch totally loses the course of the navigation and an “excess of confidence” during the watch, are indicated among the causes that could cause the grounding and partial sinking of the vessel on a coral reef off Mauritius.
The AMP awaits the result of an interview with the captain, in custody, and the first officer, and has requested access to the VDR (voyage data recorder) and other essential ship navigation documents in the investigation, which are in the custody of the Police of the Republic of Mauritius.â
Further useful commentary on the accident are to be found in Baird Maritimeâs newsletter: https://www.bairdmaritime.com/ship-world/dry-cargo-world/column-destroyed-by-technology-grey-power/
5. Tugs on station
The issue of whether there should be tugs on station round the UK coastline has been a matter for ongoing debate for many years. Those readers who have been following the story will be interested to read the new study published by the UK Government on whether or not Emergency Towing Vessels are likely to be available to assist ships in advance of a collision or grounding occurring.
Readers can see the latest report at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/913687/S_31_-_ANNEX_A_-_Summary_Report.pdf
6. Human rights arbitration
UK-based NGO Human Rights at Sea and the Paris-based arbitration practice of global law firm Shearman & Sterling have gone live with a new website dedicated to the development of an international arbitration-based system of redress for victims of human rights abuses occurring at sea entitled: âHuman Rights at Sea Arbitrationâ.
The Human Rights at Sea Arbitration initiative seeks to establish a standalone, institutional system of international arbitration that is specifically tailored to the sensitivities and complexities of human rights at sea issues. A central feature of this system is that it will put the enforcement of human rights in the victimâs hands by giving the victim the right to bring claims directly against alleged responsible parties.
The principal aim of this design â and of the initiative more generally â is to provide victims of human rights abuses at sea with access to an effective remedy, while at the same time combating impunity for the perpetrators of such abuses.
7. Donât do it again.
Learning from mistakes and bad practice is a key part of improving safety and good work practices. The latest series of reports of incidents from the CHIRP Charitable Trust, MARITIME FEEDBACK 60 is now available.
This is the third bulletin this year and contains reports on working aloft, engine failures whilst manoeuvring, the use and limitations of navigational equipment including pilot PPUs. There is also mention of a recent report on the use of mobile phones and the potential for distraction. MFB 60 is available online in four languages, English, Chinese, Portuguese and Filipino.
The latest edition can be found here
8. Exceeding laytime
Reed Smith brings to our attention a new judgment in the English courts on damages in addition to demurrage. The judgment handed down by the English High Court has re-opened the door to recovering damages in addition to demurrage for losses caused by exceeding laytime in cargo operations.
For further details on the 85 page judgment in K Line Pte Ltd vs Priminds Shipping (HK) Co Ltd (The Eternal Bliss) [2020] EWHC 2373 (Comm) go to https://www.shiplawlog.com/2020/09/07
9. TT Club: supply chain security
It is well recognised that cargo theft is prevalent and always identifies weak links in the supply chain. Analysis identifies the âfinal mileâ leg of transit as the most frequently exposed. Often involving temporary or in transit storage, the trucking element of the journey is often targeted. Here we look at two specific aspects of security for such risks.
Appreciating that where opportunity exists, innovation follows, TT says it closely monitors developments in a number of sectors. Developments in supply chain security in particular are of high interest, whether it is a new locking device, a tamperproof security seal, smart containers or initiatives to make wholesale fundamental changes to the current security landscape.
One security innovation that TT has been monitoring over the last 12 months is a product brought to market by Freightsafe and BOSCH Secure Truck Parking.
https://www.ttclub.com/news-
10. Liquefaction dangers
The dangers of cargo liquefaction and the disastrous consequences need no introduction. With a number of typhoons forecast to affect shipping in the East China Sea, the monsoon season in India starting in October, and a recent instance of cargo liquefaction occurring on a bulk carrier which had loaded a cargo of nickel ore at Surigao, Philippines, The London P&I Club reminds members to be aware of the risks associated with the bulk carriage of cargoes such as iron ore fines, coal, manganese ore fines and nickel ore, as incidents involving liquefaction continue to occur, sometimes with catastrophic and tragic results.
The London P&I Clubâs publication âReducing the Risk of Liquefactionâ provides general guidance and practical advice to masters, ship owners, shippers and charterers on the loading and carriage of bulk cargoes which may liquefy, the risks associated with liquefaction, and the precautions which should be taken to minimise those risks, both before acceptance of the cargo and during carriage. An electronic copy of the guide can be accessed by clicking here.
For carriage of nickel ore cargoes from Philippines or Indonesia, the Clubâs Circular containing detailed information on the Safe Carriage of Nickel Ore Cargoes is available here.
11. Lifesaving appliances
With an increasing number of vessels returning to service following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, Survitec is advising that shipsâ life-saving appliances are maintained according to their original service schedules in order to avoid delays.
Operators must have a valid safety certificates in place before their vessels can return to service after lockdown and while some flags have allowed three-to-five month extensions, there are concerns that there will be a backlog of equipment requiring service, which could render the vessel unable to return to service until certificates of compliance have been issued or extensions approved.
Survitec singles out the cruise and ferry segment, which is set to return to service in the fourth quarter, as posing a particular challenge due to the volume of safety equipment onboard that could require servicing.
Highlighting a potential bottleneck as demand for safety equipment servicing ramps up, Survitec has advised its customers to keep to their original maintenance plans where possible and ensure approved service providers are kept abreast of vessel movements so that safety equipment can be booked in and certificates issued in time.
In accordance with SOLAS Chapter 1 Regulation 14, safety certificate extensions can be issued for liferafts, lifeboats, marine evacuation systems (MES), davits and launching appliances.
However, the first round of extensions is now coming to an end and those extensions issued in the second half of 2020 will start to expire from early 2021. https://survitecgroup.com/
12. Indian Supreme Court ruling on abandoned cargo
Gard brings to our attention a new ruling by the Indian Supreme Court stating that ports are not entitled to levy storage/demurrage charges for abandoned cargo against shipowners and agents.
Lawyers, Amitava Majumdar, Damayanti Sen & Tripti Sharma of the law firm Bose & Mitra & Co, provided Gard with the details of the Indian Supreme Courtâs decision in the case of The Chairman, Board of Trustees, Cochin v. M/s Arebee Star Maritime Agencies Private Ltd. & Ors (âArebeeâ). The judgment is a significant positive development for liner operators trading to India, the club says.
13. Cargo screening tool for dangerous goods
Exis Technologies has launched Hazcheck Detect, a cargo screening tool to detect misdeclared and undeclared dangerous goods in containerised shipments. Maersk is the first customer signed to the Hazcheck Detect solution.
In a white paper published by NCB in July this year they reported that a recent Container Inspection Safety Initiative they had carried out revealed an alarming number of containers carried by sea include misdeclared dangerous cargoes that represent a serious safety risk to crew, vessel and the environment. The inspection initiative showed that 55% of containers were non-compliant with 43% failing to secure dangerous goods correctly within the container itself. Approximately 6.5% of containers carrying dangerous cargoes had been misdeclared.
The white paper is calling for industry to adopt a comprehensive, holistic and coordinated approach to address this worrying trend with 12 recommendations ranging from embracing a safety culture for dangerous goods compliance to practical measures for container and vessel inspections and monitoring.
One of the white paper recommendations is the incorporation of integrated digital tools that automate critical compliance functions, like Hazcheck Detect.
14. Indian multimodal legislation
NAU Pte Ltd a claims correspondent/consultancy firm based at Singapore dealing with Transport Liability, P&I and H&M Claims has penned an article which may be of interest on new multimodal legislation in India.
Indian Multimodal Transportation of Goods Bill 2017
15. Benchmarking crew wage costs
The Seafarer Employers’ Association July 2020 report is now available produced by Spinnaker.
The recently published Seafarer Wage Cost report captures data from over 45 companies, including shipowners, ship managers and oil majors. Data was supplied for 48 different ranks ranging from Senior Officers to Ratings, representing over 250,000 seafarers, covering 92 different nationalities.
Semi-annual reporting ensures that data is kept up to date with the market, providing invaluable information to some of the worldâs top shipping companies. This enables members to compare their wage costs against their peers, provide supporting information to assist with budgets and planning, helping to pay at competitive levels to aid crew retention.
If you would like to take part in future reporting and benefit from receiving this information, or if you would just like more information on becoming and member and recieving the reports pleaseâŻcontact seafarers@spinnaker-global.
Events and appointments
Middle East webinar
Covid-19 continues to have a major impact on the global economy, and particularly so in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Many projects have been delayed, contracts terminated and numerous entities are facing liquidity issues. This has resulted in an increasing number of parties evoking the dispute resolution mechanism in their contracts in an attempt to recover losses and apply commercial pressure.
Stephenson Harwood and Locke Lord are holding a webinar where attendees will be provided with an overview of litigation and arbitration proceedings in the MENA region.
WFW appointment
Law firm Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) has promoted the long-time boss of its Athens office to co-head of its global maritime sector division. George Paleokrassas will serve in the role alongside London-based Lindsey Keeble, who has led the division since 2014.
North appointment
North P&I has strengthened its FD&D leadership team in Greece with the appointment of Antigone Yanniotis and Gillian Stanton to the roles of Deputy Director (FD&D) Greece, demonstrating Northâs continuing dedication to providing the highest standards of FD&D service to its local members..
Crew issues webinar
In collaboration with UK Chamber of Shipping, Ince are planning a webinar on September 22 on âCrew Issues in a Pandemic – Practical Problems and Solutionsâ. Ince experts will discuss the impact of Covid-19 on crew issues from both a legal and practical perspective. In particular, the session will cover: Contractual uncertainty and practical considerations for crew rotation; bullying and harassment on board; seafarers as âKeyworkersâ; Covid v Crew – Mental Health challenges being faced by crew.
All of the speakers have the relevant expertise and will refer to real life examples and personal experiences throughout. To register for this webinar, please click here.
West long-term charity programme
West has made initial commitments to three selected charities for 10 yearsâ financial support. The chosen charities activities and projects, as well as continuing commitment to local charities through regional offices  are Sailorsâ Society â Wellness at Sea  Blue Marine Foundation – Namibian Islandsâ Marine Protected Area (NIMPA) Project National Oceanography Centre â Seagoing Science Bursary.
The bursary has been set up to enable students and early career scientists, or those from developing countries who are keen to become involved in the field of marine science or oceanography, to gain practical experience of ship borne science.
Please notify the Editor of your appointments, promotions, new office openings and other important happenings: contactus@themaritimeadvocate.
And finally…
Life is not always easy for prairie dogs, as outlined in the following account.
âLast night I spent the night on the prairie. I couldnât make out why the dogs kept on howling.
In the morning, I found out.
There ainât no trees on the prairie ⌠just cactus.â