Where payment of hire is to be made to a bank account specified by the shipowner, it is only when his account has been credited and that he has free and unhindered use of the money that he can be said to have been paid. Thus, where payment is to be made to an owners’ account with an American bank in London, receipt of the hire by the bank’s head office in New York does not constitute a proper payment of hire. At least it does not, at present; the Courts are still considering this point. Is the head office the agent of the owners’ bank? It is said that since the owner cannot use the money (disregarding any special credit facilities he may enjoy with the London Branch) he has not truly been paid.

If payment is made in New York to a bank acting as correspondent for the London bank where the hire is to be credited to the owner, the liability for payment of hire is not discharged by the charterer, until the owner is in receipt of the money and that it lies in his account, unconditionally.

The foregoing serves to illustrate the proposition that correct payment has not been made to the beneficiary until he is able to dispose freely of the money transferred to him. In fact if his bank fails to credit him until the morning after receipt of monies, it could be said that the owner has not been paid, although the funds have already been lying with his bank overnight.

In the days when clerks sat on tripods and pushed quills over voluminous ledgers, these problems did not arise. They are a reflection of today’s progress in electronics. It is often not until the night shift at the bank has stirred the computers into motion that the day’s transactions are recorded. Since few banks (except those in California) remain open for business after sunset, the credit entries do not appear in the ledger sheets until the morning after the credit slip has been taped. Curiously the debit entries seem to enjoy swifter passage and to slide into the customers’ account simultaneously with or sometimes without minute anticipation of the outward payment. Perhaps overnight interest rates militate against the instantaneous postings of clients’ positive balances?

Requirements for the payment of hire under the Baltime and N.Y.P.E. charter-parties differ in severity. The Baltime clause reads: