Bajansailor
Well-known member
I posted the note below on the Mobo Forum, and as there is a long running thread on here as well, I thought I would ask my (rather long winded) question here as well to any maritime lawyers.
Nobody on here has mentioned the Salvors (Svitzer) yet - and they are going to be looking for a fairly hefty salvage claim.
Some years ago I was involved in cargo surveys on a ship at anchor in Trinidad - her main engine had broken down while on passage from the USA to West Africa with very expensive oil field equipment on board, and a Smit salvage tug was sent out to tow her to Trinidad as this was the nearest place of safe refuge.
The cargo was break bulk - all sorts of different types of drilling kit and equipment, with a long list of Owners of the different cargoes on the vessel.
The Owners (Charterers? ) were faced with a very hefty salvage claim from Smit, so they declared 'General Average'.
This was probably a clever wheeze on their part at the time - basically this meant that all of the different Owners of the cargo being shipped had to 'chip in' a proportion of the salvage fee (based on the value of their cargo) and the costs of trans-shipping their cargo to another vessel, otherwise they could say good-bye to their very expensive goods.
I am wondering if perhaps the same sort of situation might apply here, where Hoegh declare General Average, and the owners (or Insurers) of the vehicles all have to chip in to the cost of the salvage?
This is what Wiki has to say about General Average - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_average
And if anybody is VERY keen on bedtime reading about this fascinating subject, here is a 68 page guide to it - https://www.ctplc.com/media/72233/A-...al-Average.pdf
Nobody on here has mentioned the Salvors (Svitzer) yet - and they are going to be looking for a fairly hefty salvage claim.
Some years ago I was involved in cargo surveys on a ship at anchor in Trinidad - her main engine had broken down while on passage from the USA to West Africa with very expensive oil field equipment on board, and a Smit salvage tug was sent out to tow her to Trinidad as this was the nearest place of safe refuge.
The cargo was break bulk - all sorts of different types of drilling kit and equipment, with a long list of Owners of the different cargoes on the vessel.
The Owners (Charterers? ) were faced with a very hefty salvage claim from Smit, so they declared 'General Average'.
This was probably a clever wheeze on their part at the time - basically this meant that all of the different Owners of the cargo being shipped had to 'chip in' a proportion of the salvage fee (based on the value of their cargo) and the costs of trans-shipping their cargo to another vessel, otherwise they could say good-bye to their very expensive goods.
I am wondering if perhaps the same sort of situation might apply here, where Hoegh declare General Average, and the owners (or Insurers) of the vehicles all have to chip in to the cost of the salvage?
This is what Wiki has to say about General Average - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_average
And if anybody is VERY keen on bedtime reading about this fascinating subject, here is a 68 page guide to it - https://www.ctplc.com/media/72233/A-...al-Average.pdf
