First General Average & Salvage Claim

General Average is a principle of Maritime Law that applies when the Ship’s Master has to voluntarily sacrifice cargo, or incur extraordinary expenditure in order to save the voyage in an emergency. If this situation occurs, all parties involved (including cargo owners) proportionally share the resulting losses.  Where a Salvage operation is necessary to recover the vessel and/or remaining cargo, the Salvor will be entitled to a Salvage Award.

The vessel involved in our claim, the Hanjin Aqua, was carrying 2,303 containers and went aground in the Sunda Straights, Indonesia, having sailed from Port Adelaide. Efforts to refloat the vessel using her own engines failed, so a salvage company was employed to refloat the vessel. The vessel was eventually refloated, and sailed on to Singapore, where the containers were offloaded, and the vessel is currently undergoing repairs. Costs incurred by the Shipowners in their attempts to refloat the vessel unaided will be the subject of a General Average declaration, the costs of the salvage operation will be the subject of a Salvage Award as determined by the Admiralty Court.

Security for both General Average and Salvage Award was provided by Insurers to enable the safe release of our client’s cargo at Singapore and for reshipment on to the UK via a replacement vessel. General Average and Salvage Costs are provided for under the Letton Percival Overseas Removals Scheme coverage.

Image: Shipspotting