Voyage Charters
Page 247
Chapter 8
Dunnage
| [clause 1 continued] | |
| (Charterers to provide all mats and/or wood for dunnage and any | 12 |
| separations required, the owners allowing the use of any dunnage | 13 |
| wood on board if required) … | 14 |
| [clause 1 is continued below] | |
Meaning of dunnage
8.1 As used in this clause, dunnage means the wood, battens, mats and any other material necessary to ensure that the stow is tight and secure in the holds, that adequate ventilation passages exist, where the type of cargo so requires, and that the cargo is not damaged by condensation or by contact with the ship or with other cargo. Precisely what materials and appliances are included in the expression is a question of fact. In Wye Shipping Co. v. Cie. du Chemin de Fer ParisOrleans,1 the question arose whether the expression “dunnage”, in a clause similar to that at present under consideration, included shifting boards, and McCardie J. summarised his views as follows:I cannot help thinking that whether a specific article be dunnage or not must depend upon the view of a trained mercantile man experienced in these matters as to the nature and function of the object; and in my view, and from my own limited knowledge of these matters, I believe that [counsel for the charterers] is correct when he says that these shifting boards are not used for stowage at the sides or the bottom of the hold; these shifting boards really, as he puts it, are movable bulkheads, and they are meant to prevent the roll of the cargo from side to side, which would take place usually from the roll of the vessel; and I think, as [he] has suggested, that they should be regarded more as a part of the equipment of the vessel than as ordinary dunnage within the meaning of that term.