Lifting and carriage of deck cargo on board general cargo ships

Lifting and carriage of deck cargo on board general cargo ships

System of work for deck cargo

Container transport

All cargoes should be stowed and secured in a manner that will avoid exposing the ship and persons on board to unnecessary risk. The safe stowage and securing of cargo depends upon proper planning, execution and supervision by properly qualified and experienced personnel. Advance planning, exchange of information, and continuous ship to shore communication are all critical.

The safe securing of all deck cargoes should be checked by a competent person before the vessel proceeds on passage. The master is responsible for ensuring that it is correctly stowed and adequately secured for the intended voyage. Areas on the deck which are not to be used for cargo stowage should be clearly marked or otherwise indicated.

To aid unloading at sea to be carried out safely, independent cargo units should, as far as practicable, be individually lashed. Where it is not practical to lash individual pieces of cargo, then groups of lifts intended for the same delivery location should be secured together. Lashings should, where practicable, be of a type that can be easily released and maintained.

All lashings should be checked at least once during each watch whilst at sea. Personnel engaged in the operation should be closely supervised from the bridge, particularly in adverse weather conditions. At night in bad weather, an Aldis lamp or searchlight should be used to aid remote checking of lashings to avoid placing personnel at risk.

Where fitted, pipe posts to restrain the movement of tubulars should be used.

Discarded rope and damaged and unserviceable equipment and cargo should not be jettisoned at sea but retained for disposal ashore. Such materials and articles can foul propellers or cause damage to fishing gear.

Cargo ships law at sea

At common law, the proper place for the stowage of cargo is below deck, since deck cargo is exposed to greater risks (of water damage, loss overboard, lightning, frost, etc.) than under-deck cargo.

Unlawful carriage on deck is usually regarded by courts as being an unjustifiable deviation and is penalised severely. Where a carrier stows goods on deck without express agreement of the shipper, he is breaching his contractual duty. If the wrongly-stowed deck cargo is lost overboard or damaged on passage, the carrier will not be able to rely on any of the exceptions from liability in the contract of carriage, since they can only be relied on whilst he is performing (i.e. not deviating from) the contract .

A court may “set the contract aside”, making the carrier revert to common carrier status. As such, the carrier would then be liable for the cargo claim unless he could prove the loss or damage to have been caused by one of the six common law exceptions outlined as below:

i) act of God, i.e. some unforeseen and unpreventable natural event, e.g. lightning or earthquake;

ii) act of Queen’s enemies, i.e. a State or people with whom the carrier is at war during the carriage of the goods (but excluding robbers, rioters and pirates);

iii) inherent vice in the goods, i.e. a natural tendency of a commodity to deteriorate without human negligence, e.g. fruit and fish deteriorating, liquids fermenting, loss of weight in hides due to evaporation, severe pitting of steel plates not due to atmospheric rusting.

iv) negligence of the consignor, e.g. insufficient or defective packing of goods inside containers or cases;

v) fraud of the owner or consignor of the goods, e.g. where the shipper makes an untrue statement to the carrier as to their nature or value, or their threat to safety as well as (for sea carriers only);

vi) jettison or other proper General Average sacrifice, i.e. when cargo is intentionally and properly destroyed or damaged during the voyage in order to preserve the ship and other cargo from a danger threatening the entire “adventure”.

A sea carrier will not, however, be protected by the common law exceptions when the true cause of the loss or damage to the goods was:

• his negligence, e.g. in not taking reasonable steps to protect cargo from loss or damage;
• his vessel was unseaworthy at the start of the voyage; or
• the loss or damage occurred while the vessel was unjustifiably deviating from the contract.

Summarized below some more details on general cargo ship cargo handling procedure and operational info:

Lifting and carriage of deck cargo on board general cargo ships

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