Obligations: mutual and prior to loading

6.1 In the absence of a different agreement being reached between the parties, there is a mutual obligation upon the charterers to ship the cargo and upon the owners to receive it on board at the agreed loading place. The owners are under a prior obligation to bring the ship to that agreed loading place and the charterers are under an absolute and non-delegable duty to provide a cargo for loading, such that charter party exceptions would normally be read as protecting charterers only in respect of their duty to load, and not as covering their duty to provide cargo, although they might cover the latter if sufficiently clear and distinct words were used.1 This is particularly so if the provision of cargo is necessary in order that the vessel should be permitted to proceed to the agreed loading place.2