Marine expert witness - Charter dispute

Hill Harmony

A vessel called Hill Harmony was engaged on a charter trip from Vancouver to Shiogama in 1993.   The charterers had obtained weather routeing advice and had ordered the vessel to take a ‘Great Circle’ route from Vancouver to Yokkaichi and Shiogama.  The Captain, however, having experienced serious heavy weather damage the previous year whilst following a similar route, did not follow the charterers’ orders and took a ‘Rhumb Line’ route.  This took considerably longer and the charterers deducted hire and the costs of bunkers and the owners sought to recover these costs in arbitration proceedings.

Maritime Services (International) Ltd were engaged by the Charterers to evaluate the route taken and the reasons given and to prepare an Experts Report on the choice of route.  As part of the investigation it was identified that the reasons given for the route chosen did not include the  underlying reasons for the choice.  The case went on to become a landmark case in the House of Lords.