Maersk Honam fire (2018)

On March 6, 2018, the Maersk Honam, a 15,262 TEU container ship put into service in 2017, reports a fire in hold number three in the Arabian Sea, about nine hundred miles off the Omani coast, with a cargo of several thousand containers. Seafarers die, the ship burns for several days, salvage tugs bring her to Jebel Ali, in Dubai. The owner, the Maersk Line company, declares general average, and it is that declaration that brings the case into cargo insurance files: each shipper, including those whose containers did not burn, has to contribute to the salvage, towage and firefighting costs, to the extent the York-Antwerp Rules allow. The adjuster calculates the contributions, shippers sign the general average bond and provide their insurer's guarantee. The case is cited for three reasons. Container ship fire, often tied to misdeclared goods, is a frequency risk that grows with ship size. Unaffected cargoes pay for those that were hit. And the cost of salving a big ship puts sums on shippers that bear no relation to their goods. The loss fed the debate on the declaration of dangerous goods, and on the ability of clubs and insurers to absorb a nine-figure loss.