The Safe Carrier

Seabord Offshore Ltd. v. Secretary of State for Transport 1 is a case of considerable importance both on the construction of s. 31 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1988 and generally in relation to strict and vicarious liability. It would be difficult to improve on the succinct statement of facts offered by Staughton, L.J. The m.v. Safe Carrier left port on 6 September 1990. The chief engineer, Mr Carrigan, had joined the ship only two hours 50 minutes earlier. During the next 24 hours the engines broke down on three occasions, leaving the vessel drifting at sea. She was brought back to port under tow. It was accepted that she had at no time been in real danger. The magistrates found that it was not the policy of the company to put pressure on its masters to put to sea. The chief engineer knew that he had a duty to the master to inform him if he considered it unsafe to put to sea. The chief engineer thought that it was safe to do so. The minimum time for a chief engineer to familiarize himself with a converted vessel is three days. There was no evidence who decided that the vessel should put to sea before the engineer had had time to become fully conversant with its workings.