Articles

The crew had abandoned ship and the stricken vessel drifted at the mercy of the Arabian Sea’s monsoon weather. The main engine had failed. The ship’s condition, and the risk of her foundering were unknown. The 10,500 tonnes of the vessel’s bulk cargo in four holds was not likely to move, unless flooding occurred. Her…

Having recently ourselves settled a case involving a tug that had fallen out of class shortly before the incident in question, it was interesting to see that such a case has recently found its way from an arbitration award to the Court of Appeal in London. It is seldom the case (and was not in…

The industry is still some years away from the first unmanned and autonomous tug undertaking a tow. If such a thing appeared until recently unthinkable, consider the incredible strides forward taken with unmanned engine rooms, auto-helm, ARPA and now AIS, satellite communications, GPS, electronic navigation and displays and now hybrid power trains. That it is…

Simon Tatham looks at how the routine top-overhaul of a four-stroke V16 port engine of a tug led to a 10-year court battle over the purchase order wording One of my tasks as columnist is to trawl through recent shipping law reports and alert readers to decisions that might impact upon their tug operations or…

Simon Tatham looks back at a case where a scientist’s expert advice was that fish might actually enjoy dining on a ‘natural product’ such as heavy fuel oil. Cases can have many twists and turns, some spectacular. The first unfortunate turn in the case of Hyundai New World was made after it had loaded a…

I have attended the Salvage & Wreck conference in London for more years than I care to admit. The December event was particularly well attended and interesting. One of the central debates took place around LOF and the various discussion papers that have been put forward over the future of salvage contracts now that salvage…