1. Introduction

In a conventional maritime context when it comes to the liability of a vessel to third parties, it is, in the vast majority of cases, the shipowner who is the main recipient of that liability. This is either through bespoke liability regimes1 or, in the English context, as a matter of general negligence law,2 either for the shipowner’s own default or for the default of those for whom he is responsible, principally the ship’s crew, who are in practice charged with a ship’s safe operation. Furthermore, the construction of ships and the equipment she is required to carry are the subject of established and internationally agreed standards, compliance with which is overseen and verified by national maritime administrations, often with the assistance of classification societies. It is perhaps because of this established legal and practical reality that liability of other potentially culpable parties, including shipbuilders and producers of onboard navigational equipment, has been extremely infrequent in practice.