The Gazelle and Cargo

Citations

• 128 U.S. 474
• 9 S. Ct. 139
• 32 L. Ed. 496
• 1888 U.S. LEXIS 2240

Syllabus

<p>A charter-party of a vessel to a “ safe, direct, Norwegian or Danish port, as ordered on signing bills of lading, or as near thereunto as she can safely get and always lay and discharge afloat,” requires the charterer to order her to a port which she can safely enter with cargo, or which, at least, has a safe anchorage outside, where she can lie and discharge afloat.</p> <p>bindings of fact by the Circuit Court in admiralty, that a port to which charterers have ordered a vessel is one having a bar across its mouth, which it was impossible for her to pass, either in ballast or with cargo, and that the only anchorage outside is not a reasonably safe anchorage, nor a place where it is reasonably safe for a vessel to lie and discharge, are not controlled or overcome by a statement in the findings that many vessels have in fact discharged their cargoes at that anchorage.</p> <p>The omission of the Circuit Court in admiralty to make any findings upon a fact put in issue by the pleadings can only be.availed of by bill of exceptions.</p> <p>A charter-party of a vessel “to a safe, direct, Norwegian or Danish port, or as near thereunto as she can safely get and always lay and discharge afloat,” cannot be controlled by evidence of a custom to consider as safe, Within the meaning of such a charter-party,' a particular Danish port, which in fact cannot be entered by such a vessel, and has no anchorage outside where it is reasonably safe to lie and discharge.</p> <p>If a charterer prevents the performance of the voyage by refusing to order the vessel to such a port as is designated in the charter-party; and the master files successive libels for demurrage accruing under it, until the charterer files a cross libel contending that the master had committed a breach of the charter-party; and it is found, at a hearing upon ail the libels, that the time required to perform the voyage stated' in the charter-party. would have been about the same as elapsed before the vessel procured a