The Royal Sceptre

Citations

• 187 F. 224
• 1911 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 286

Syllabus

<p>1. Shipping (§ 141*) — Construction op Charter Party — Private Carrier-Limitation op Liability.-</p> <p>When a charter party gives the charterer the full capacity of the ship, the owner is not a common carrier, but a bailee to transport as a private carrier for hire, and provisions in the charter party exempting the owner from liability for injury to cargo from the negligence of officers or crew are lawful and valid.</p> <p>[Ed. Note. — For other cases, see Shipping, Dec. Dig. § 141.*</p> <p>Limitation of owner’s liability, see note to The Longfellow, 45 C. C. A. 387.]</p> <p>2. Shipping (§ 141*) — Loss op Cargo — Liability op Vessel — Unseaworthiness.</p> <p>A provision in a charter party which makes the shipowner a private carrier exempting him from liability for negligence of master or crew does not exempt him from liability for loss of cargo by reason of the unseaworthiness of the ship at the commencement of the voyage, or any stage thereof, although caused by negligent loading; there being an implied, if not expressed, warranty of seaworthiness in every contract of charter.</p> <p>[Ed. Note. — For other cases, see Shipping, Dec. Dig. § 141.*]</p> <p>3. Shipping (§ 121*) — Liability por Loss op Cargo — Unseaworthiness— Improper Loading.</p> <p>’ The turret steamship Royal Sceptre, chartered to carry a full cargo of quebracho wood from the River Plate to New York, loaded at points up the river and.had proceeded down to Rosario, when, turning on a hard astarboard helm to reach her anchorage, under the influence of the current and possibly of grazing on the bottom, she careened to starboard until she had a list of 70 degrees, and dumped the most of her deck load, which was lost. When she left her last loading port, she had a deck load of over 700 tons of wood, piled to a height of 11 feet, besides 100 tons of coal, her ballast tanks were nearly empty to lessen her draft in the river, and her range of stability was about one-fourth that calculated for her at sea.