Grounding

Grounding is contact between the ship and the seabed, whether suffered through a navigational error, a propulsion failure or weather, or decided deliberately to avoid a sinking, in which case it is called voluntary stranding. It is one of the named perils of hull policies and one of the few that even the most restrictive cargo forms still cover, because it belongs to the category of major casualties. Its consequences reach well beyond hull damage: detention, loss of earnings, a general average contribution where expense is incurred to refloat, pollution, and sometimes the blocking of a waterway, which turns a hull casualty into a liability event of systemic scale. Voluntary stranding decided for the common safety gives rise to a general average contribution, while accidental grounding stays with the interest that suffered it. The problem this classification solves is the line between what is suffered and what is sacrificed, only the second being shared among all the interests in the adventure.

The grounding of the 400 meter Ever Given across the Suez Canal on March 23, 2021 blocked the waterway for six days and held up 369 ships; the canal authority first claimed 916 million dollars from the owner before settling in July 2021 for an undisclosed sum.

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