In the English language there is probably no word more difficult to define than the word “agent”. For this reason agents are variously defined as “commercial agents”, “general agents”, “del credere agents”, “agents of necessity” and so on. By itself the word includes “factor”, “broker” and “steward” but does not include “servant”, “independent contractor” or “public agent”.

The businessman who seeks the guidance of his legal adviser could well be quoted a definition from “Halsbury’s Laws of England”:

In reference to shipbrokers, Edward (for many years Secretary of the Chartered Shipbrokers Protection and Indemnity Association, an Honorary Fellow of the Institute, and a solicitor), in his book “Shipbrokers and the law” distinguishes between a “general agent” who may become the alter ego of his appointor with open authority to bind his principal, and the shipbroker or port agent who may be described as a “special agent”; the port agent being appointed by the shipowner to attend to all the business of the vessel while in port, and with authority to deal with all the normal matters arising from that agency including the ordering on behalf of the vessel and her owner, at the request of the master, necessary supplies, to pay port and other dues, pilotages, etc., and to make cash advances to the master. If, however, some extraordinary requirement should arise, then the port agent would not have implied authority to deal with it without reference to the owner unless it were a case of “necessity” and he could not communicate with his principal.

The general principles affecting the port agent are those of the common law as amended by statutes, of which there have been very few. This basic position may be altered by agreement, especially in the case of liner agents, as, for example, by the FONASBA Standard Liner Agency Agreement.