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RESOURCES
Maritime / Shipping Glossary
Act Of God: An essentially inevitable event occurring without the intervention of man. These events can include floods, or hurricanes or other events beyond the control of any party.
Allision: When a ship comes into contact with (collides with) a fixed object, not a ship.
Always Afloat Or Always Safely Afloat: A charter party clause which requires that a ship is to berth for loading or discharging without touching the bottom of the sea / river / lake, etc.
Bareboat Or Demise Charter: A Demise charter is essentially the same as a Bareboat charter. In this case, the charterers hire or charter the ship for a set period of time and provide the crew and ship management and additionally pay all running expenses.
Cabotage: Refers to the coastal trades of a particular nation. Cabotage is often governed by statutes requiring that only ships flying the flag of the coastal state concerned may engage in the coastal trades between ports of that state, unless "waivers" are obtained from the government of the state. In the United States, this means that the vessels must be built (primarily) in the United States, fly the U.S. flag and be crewed by American nationals.
Charterparty: A Contract of Affreightment signed between the shipowner and the charterer, whereby the charterer hires the vessel for the carriage of goods. These contracts can take many forms, including Time Charters, Bareboat Charters or Voyage Charters.
Cubic Capacity: The internal cargo carrying capacity of a vessel expressed in cubic feet or cubic meters in the cargo holds.
Disbursements: Expenses incurred in a port against the general expenses of the vessel these include wages , loading and /or discharging bunkers, water, provisions, customs clearance, port and quay dues, pilotage, tugs and other pertinent costs.
Demurrage: An agreed amount payable to the shipowner by the charterer in respect of delay in loading or discharging the vessel beyond the laytime, for which the owner is not responsible.
Disponent Owner: A person or company who controls the commercial operation of a ship , responsible for deciding the ports of call and the cargoes to be carried.
ETA: Estimated/Expected Time of Arrival of a particular vessel, usually conveyed by the vessel on a daily basis, to the charterer.
Free Pratique: Permission given to a ship to use a port after it has been certified free of disease, in compliance with port state control, local authorities and other regulatory bodies.
Freight: Transportation charges levied by the shipowner for cargo carried by a ship.
Full And Down: When a tank vessel is completely loaded to both her maximum draft and cubic capacity.
General Average Sacrifice: An extraordinary sacrifice intentionally and reasonably made to preserve from peril the property involved in a common maritime voyage.
International Maritime Organization (IMO): The United Nations-sponsored Maritime Consultative Organization, concerned with safety at sea. This organization provides technical advice and assistance to various states concerning merchant marine and regulatory matters.
Intermodal: The full range of transportation methods which include sea, air, road, rail, pipeline and any other means of transportation. In the maritime world, it often refers to the connectivity of different transport means to the maritime component.
Hague Rules: Formal rules governing the carriage of goods by sea and identifying the rights and responsibilities of carriers and owners of cargo. These rules were originally published in 1924 and subsequently given the force of law by many maritime nations.
Homogeneous Cargo: Cargo of the same quality or nature which can be potentially intermingled without contamination to one or the other.
International Association Of Classification Societies (IACS): An association of major classification societies whose principal goal is the improvement of standards of safety at sea.
Joint Survey: An Inspection carried out by a surveyor on behalf of two parties with the cost generally being borne by both. Generally, cargo surveys often fall under this category, but surveys are carried out for a myriad of reasons, including but not limited to on and off-hire, vettings and damage surveys.
Knot: Unit of speed in navigation which is the rate of nautical miles per hour. One knot equals one nautical mile (6.080 feet or 1.852 meters) per hour.
Laytime: In a voyage charter party, "lay days" are agreed to between the parties during which the shipowner will make and keep the vessel available to the voyage charterer for loading or discharging without payment additional to the freight.
Lump Sum: An agreed sum of money for freight, irrespective of the amount of cargo carried.
MARPOL 73/78: The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships,1973, as modified by the protocol of 1978.
Negotiable Documents: Legal documents which transfer the right of property from one or more persons to others.
Nominated Vessel: The specific vessel which has been designated for a particular voyage.
Notice Of Readiness: The declaration of a shipowner to its charterers or cargo suppliers which denotes that the vessel has arrived at its designated port and is ready in all respects to load or discharge the nominated cargo.
Original Bill Of Lading: A bill of lading which usually bears the original signature of the master of a ship or his agent. It is exchanged for the goods at the port of ultimate destination of the contract of carriage.
Outturn: The final amount of cargo, usually expressed in volume or weight, ascertained to have been discharged from a ship and received ashore. Freight on bulk cargoes is sometimes payable on the basis of this weight.
Parcel Tanker: A tank vessel designed to carry more than one – and sometimes as many as fifty or more – grades of liquid cargo including chemicals and refined oil products.
Post Fixture: Work carried out by a shipowner or shipbroker after the negotiations for the charter of a ship have been finished. This can include payment of freight, calculation of dispatch or demurrage and the resolution of any disputes.
Port State Control: Port State Control is the system whereby the authorities of a State responsible for marine safety are empowered to inspect vessels entering its ports, even if they do not fly the flag of that State, in order to identify ships not complying with applicable norms, especially with respect to safety. Port State Control is typically governed by an international agreement, such as the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Part Cargo: Goods which do not represent the entire cargo for a particular ship but whose quantity is sufficient to be carried on charter terms.
Prompt: Immediate availability of the cargo or vessel offered in the charter party or any other contract. Similar to Spot.
Protection And Indemnity Club (P & I): A mutual association formed by shipowners to provide protection from large financial loss to one member by contribution towards that loss by all members. The P&I Club can, in certain cases, cover such costs as defending claims made by cargo owners for cargo ROB volumes or other shortages.
Quote (TO): The act of a charterer to make known that a ship is sought for a particular cargo or, as a shipowner, to advertise the availability of his ship for charter. Most often this activity is carried out using the services of shipbrokers.
Remaining On Board (ROB): The volume of cargo, usually expressed in barrels or cubic meters, left on board a tankship at a particular point of a voyage. Final ROB volumes after the completion of discharge, if too high (& deemed pumpable IAW C/P terms), can result in cargo claims from the charterer to the shipowner.
Seaworthiness: The fitness of a ship to safely load, transport and discharge a particular cargo, with respect to the hazards of the sea. Seaworthiness is a key component of any kind of charter party. See Unseaworthy.
Shipper: The party who contracts with a shipowner (carrier) for the carriage of goods.
Subject Stem: Relating to the availability of cargo on the date or dates on which a ship is offering to load.
Supercargo (also Surveyor): An individual dispatched by a shipowner or shipping company or charterer of a ship or shipper of goods to supervise cargo handling operations, inspect cargoes, ships, etc.
Time Bar: The expiration of the time period within which a lawsuit can be brought or arbitration commenced against a carrier for any claim under a contract of carriage. This time period is usually stipulated in the contract of carriage and can be extended or abridged by agreement of the two parties.
Time Charter Party: The document containing the terms and conditions of a contract between a charterer and a shipowner for the hire of a ship for a fixed time frame, usually more than one voyage.
Unseaworthiness: Unfitness of a ship for a particular voyage with a particular cargo. This can be a function of many variables, including but not limited to insufficient crew stores or fuel, machinery or equipment failure, or unfitness (unclean tanks) to receive or carry the cargo.
Trading Limits: Geographical limits specified in a time charter party outside which the charterer is not allowed to operate the ship.
Underwriter: The party who agrees to compensate another firm, usually a cargo owner or shipowner, for loss from an insured peril in consideration of payment of a premium.
Voyage Charter: A contract of carriage in which the charterer engages a shipowner for the use of a ship’s cargo space for one voyage.
Weather Permitting: The term used in voyage charter language to signify that laytime does not count when weather conditions do not allow cargo operations to be carried out.
York-Antwerp Rules: A set of rules, agreed upon and amended at several international conventions, which governs general average, what losses are allowable, who is required to contribute and the method of calculating the loss. Although these rules do not necessarily have the force of law, often they are incorporated into many contracts of carriage by agreement of the parties.
Zone Time: The local time zone for any longitude, as opposed to and usually expressed as a deviation from Greenwich Mean time (+1, -5, etc.).
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