Improper stowage and lashing
A frequent cause of cargo loss: goods badly placed, blocked or secured in the ship or container. Carrier liability is the rule, unless a clause shifts stowage to the shipper.
In November 2020, the container ship ONE Apus loses about 1,800 containers in a North Pacific storm, and several hundred more are damaged. The cause is debated, but container weights, their position and the quality of lashing are among the questions. The Hague-Visby Rules provide, in Article III(2), that the carrier shall properly and carefully load, handle, stow, carry, keep, care for and discharge the goods. Improper stowage is therefore first of all his business. He must follow the cargo securing manual approved by the flag State, which sets the devices and the permitted forces. FIO(S) clauses (free in and out, stowed) shift the burden onto the shipper and the charterer, in bulk charter parties: if the cargo is stowed by the shipper, responsibility follows, which does not stop the carrier from answering for seaworthiness. In containers, packing is the shipper's business, based on the IMO CTU Code. Losses range from simple damage to packages to the loss of the ship when a cargo shift jeopardizes stability. The cargo insurer indemnifies its insured, then seeks recourse against the carrier, within its limits per package or per kilo. The carrier's P&I bears that recourse.
Textbook case. Steel coils, 600 tonnes, loaded in the hold without suitable wooden chocks, secured with makeshift straps. In heavy weather, two coils shift and pierce the hull in the hold: flooding, ship damage of USD 900,000, loss of 40 tonnes of steel worth USD 60,000. The ship diverts to a port of refuge. The lashing did not follow the securing manual: the fault is the carrier's, who answers for the lost cargo within its limit per package or per kilo, and its P&I club bears that recourse, after deductible.
improper stowage, poor stowage, cargo lashing, container lashing, cargo securing manual, stowage and securing
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