Implied contracts are a useful and flexible tool. They have proved so valuable in the context of sea carriage, where (in the guise of the Brandt v. Liverpool contract1) they have enabled the courts to circumvent the doctrine of privity and the deficiencies of the Bills of Lading Act 1855, that their use was gradually extended from cases where contracts were implied on the basis of presentation of a bill of lading and payment of charges to the point where it seemed that any conduct indicating an