TS Singapore

Following loading at Yokohama the charterer instructed the ship to proceed to Shanghai. Meanwhile the ship sustained damage after colliding with a breakwater in and proceeded to Hong Kong to discharge all of her cargo and then to a repair yard in China. The owner accepted that the ship was off-hire during the delay following the incident however the initial routes from Yokohama to Hong Kong and Shanghai were identical and the owner claimed that the ship came back on hire for a period following departure from Japan.

The London arbitration tribunal found in favour of the charterer however the award was overturned on appeal to the English High Court.  The court concluded that the important question was not what the ship was doing at a particular moment but what instructions she was operating under. Proceeding in the general direction of a port was not the same as proceeding to the designated port and the ship was off-hire as a result.