MARITIME CASES

Error in navigation versus improperly manned and equipped and unseaworthy condition

This case involves a ship that had considerable trouble with her main engines prior to a grounding which resulted in the loss of her cargo of bananas either through jettisoning or rotting. It was also brought out in the testimony that the chief engineer had been drunk at the outset of the voyage.

As a result of the immediate history of engine trouble and the drunken chief engineer, the shipper charged that the ship was unseaworthy and improperly manned and equipped. But, from the log and testimony, the court held that the proximate reason for the grounding was an error in navigation and ruled in Favor of the ship. This case went to an appellate court before the ship received the favorable ruling: a lower court held that the ship was improperly manned and equipped and unseaworthy.

A summary of the facts is as follows. Six weeks before the ship left Miami for the Cuban port to pick up the banana cargo, the engines had been replaced and the ship overhauled. The compass had been spot-checked at this time also. The compass had been swung and compensated by an expert 15 months before the grounding. The captain of the ship had been well recommended to the shipowner and was deemed fully competent. On the outward voyage from Miami, Fla., to the loading port in Cuba, the ship’s port engine became disabled. However, it was decided that the return voyage could be made on one engine: therefore, the ship was loaded and sailed.

Not long after leaving the Cuban port with the load of bananas, the starboard engine also became disabled. A tug was obtained and the vessel proceeded while repair work went ahead on the engines. At about 2000, August 13, 1947, the ship dropped the tug and proceeded on her own power. The log showed that the ship was steering a magnetic Course of 308°. This was the course being steered at the time of the stranding at 0110, August 14, 1947. The log showed no allowance fo: wind that was blowing from the east, deviation of the compass, or current. It was brought out in the testimony of many ship’s officers that the normal magnetic course for the run in question was 308° with allowances for wind which would make the course anywhere from 309 to 316° depending upon the weather.  

The appellate court did not believe that the history of engine trouble or the fact that the chief engineer had been drunk upon departure from the loading port were shown in any way to have been the cause of the grounding. It was decided that the grounding resulted from an error in navigation in the form of simply failing to allow for leeway made by the wind.

MARINE CARGO OPERATIONS
Copied from a book of Captain Charles L. Sauerbier, USNR
Master Mariner