Dunnage in a Voyage Charterparty

Dunnage in a Voyage Charterparty

Dunnage is a practical but legally important part of cargo operations under a voyage charterparty. It refers to the timber, mats, battens, chocks, boards, and other protective or separating materials used to make the stow safe, firm, ventilated, and suitable for the cargo being carried. In many fixtures, dunnage is treated as a small operational detail. In a dispute, however, it may decide who pays for extra loading work, cargo damage, hold preparation, delay, cleaning, or removal expenses after discharge.

The usual purpose of dunnage is to protect both cargo and ship during the voyage. It may keep cargo clear of steel surfaces, reduce contact with moisture, prevent damage by condensation, create ventilation channels, support heavy or uneven units, separate different parcels, or assist a stable and secure stow. The exact material required depends on the cargo, the hold condition, the loading method, the voyage, and the type of stowage contemplated by the charterparty.

Dunnage as Part of Cargo Stowage in Voyage Charter

Dunnage should not be viewed only as loose timber placed under cargo. In commercial use, the word may cover a wider range of protective and supporting materials. Mats may be needed for bagged cargo. Wood may be needed under steel products. Chocks may be required for heavy pieces. Boards or battens may be used to create airflow or prevent cargo from pressing directly against the ship’s structure. The practical question is whether the material is being used as part of the cargo stow or whether it is more properly treated as part of the ship’s equipment.

This distinction is important because voyage charters often place the cost and supply of dunnage on the charterer, while ship’s equipment remains for the owner’s account. A clause requiring the charterers to provide mats, wood for dunnage, and separations will not automatically make the charterer responsible for every item used in cargo operations. The nature and function of the item must still be considered commercially.

The Gencon Voyage Charterparty Approach

The traditional Gencon wording places a clear obligation on the charterer to provide mats, wood for dunnage, and any separations required, while the owners allow the use of dunnage wood already on board if it is required. The effect is that the charterer must supply the additional dunnage needed for the particular cargo, unless the material is already available on the ship and can properly be used.

This allocation is commercially sensible. The charterer normally knows the cargo to be shipped, its packaging, dimensions, sensitivity, moisture risk, and separation requirements. The owner provides the ship, but the charterer’s cargo choice often determines what dunnage is necessary. If the cargo needs special timber, extra mats, cargo-specific chocks, or particular separation materials, the charterer is usually the party best placed to arrange and pay for them.

That does not mean the owner has no role. If stowage is performed by the owner, or under the master’s responsibility, and the charterer is obliged to provide the dunnage, the master should inform the charterer when the material already on board is insufficient. The master cannot silently allow defective or inadequate dunnage arrangements to develop and later complain that the charterer failed to guess what was required. Clear operational communication is essential.

Dunnage and Seaworthiness in Voyage Charterparty

A difficult question may arise where inadequate dunnage causes or contributes to cargo damage. The owner is normally obliged to provide a seaworthy ship. In some situations, equipment or preparation associated with the holds may fall within that obligation. Cargo battens permanently fitted around a hold, for example, may be treated differently from loose timber required only because of the nature of a particular cargo.

The better practical approach is to separate ship fitness from cargo-specific stowage material. If the ship’s holds, tank tops, structural fittings, or ordinary cargo spaces are defective, the owner may be responsible. If the ship is suitable for the contracted cargo but the cargo requires additional timber, mats, chocks, or separation material for safe and proper stowage, the charterer may bear the cost under a dunnage clause. The boundary is fact-sensitive and depends on the charter wording, the cargo description, and the normal expectations of the trade.

A shipowner cannot use a dunnage clause to transfer every hold-condition responsibility to the charterer. Equally, a charterer cannot treat the owner as responsible for every cargo-specific protection measure merely because the owner must provide a seaworthy ship. The issue is not decided by labels alone. The function of the material and the risk it addresses are decisive.

Shifting Boards and Ship’s Equipment

One recurring issue is whether shifting boards are dunnage. Shifting boards are not normally used simply to protect cargo from the sides or bottom of the hold. They are often used as movable bulkheads to prevent bulk cargo from shifting across the hold during the ship’s motion. Because of that function, they may be regarded more as ship’s equipment than as ordinary dunnage.

The answer may depend on the service for which the ship has been chartered and on the cargo description. If the charterparty clearly contemplates a dry bulk cargo requiring shifting boards, and the ship is described as fitted for bulk cargo, the owner may be expected to provide the boards as part of the ship’s readiness for that service. If the charterparty merely describes the ship as suitable for ordinary cargo service and does not point to dry bulk loading, the obligation may fall differently.

The distinction is illustrated by the differing treatment of ships described as fitted for bulk and general cargoes, compared with ships described only as fitted for ordinary cargo service. In the first situation, shifting boards may be regarded as part of the equipment required to perform the chartered service. In the second, they may be treated as cargo-specific material for the charterer to provide.

Separations Between Cargo Parcels

The word separations usually refers to materials used to keep different cargo parcels apart within the same hold. Separations may be required where different grades, shipments, marks, receivers, or commodities are loaded together and must remain identifiable or physically separated. This is especially important where mixing would create a cargo claim, documentary problem, shortage allegation, or commercial dispute at discharge.

Separations are not necessarily the same as shifting boards. If the parties intended shifting boards to be supplied by the charterer, it would normally be safer to say so expressly. A broad reference to separations may not be enough where the material in question is not used to separate parcels but to control the movement of cargo across the ship. Drafting should therefore identify whether the charterer must provide dunnage, separations, shifting boards, battens, mats, chocks, lashing materials, or all cargo-securing materials.

Who Bears the Cost of Additional Dunnage?

Where the charterparty states that the charterer must provide dunnage, the starting point is that the cost is for the charterer’s account. This includes the cost of acquiring the materials, bringing them to the ship, placing them where required for loading, and using them for the proper stowage and protection of the cargo. If the charterer also undertakes stowage, trimming, lashing, securing, and separation, the allocation becomes even clearer.

However, additional dunnage may become necessary because of an owner’s breach. If the ship’s gear cannot perform as described, if a hold defect materially changes the stowage method, or if the ship’s condition creates a need for extra materials beyond ordinary cargo protection, the owner may be responsible for the additional cost caused by that defect. The cost follows the cause of the need, not merely the general label attached to dunnage in the charter.

This is why dunnage disputes often turn on causation. If the cargo always required the material, the charterer usually pays. If the material became necessary only because the ship did not match the charter description or was not fit for the agreed cargo operation, the owner may bear the additional expense. If both factors contribute, the evidence must show what part of the cost was ordinary and what part was exceptional.

Master’s Duties During Loading in Voyage Charter

The master remains responsible for the safety of the ship and has an important supervisory role during loading. Even where the charterer provides the dunnage and performs the stowage, the master should intervene if the proposed stow is unsafe for the ship, crew, or cargo. He should also make timely requests for further dunnage if the material on board or supplied by the charterer is inadequate.

Practical disputes often arise because neither side makes a clear contemporaneous record. The master may say that the charterer did not provide enough dunnage. The charterer may respond that no request was made, or that the master accepted the stow. To avoid uncertainty, requests for additional dunnage should be made in writing, with details of the cargo, hold, quantity, and reason for the requirement. Survey reports, photographs, mate’s receipts, loading statements, and letters of protest may become decisive evidence.

Dunnage Already on Board

Many clauses allow the charterer to use any suitable dunnage wood already on board. This does not usually amount to a warranty that the ship will arrive with enough dunnage for the cargo. It simply allows the charterer to use existing material if it is available and appropriate. The owner is not usually required to maintain a stock of cargo-specific dunnage for every possible cargo unless the charterparty clearly says so or the nature of the service makes it part of the ship’s expected equipment.

Existing dunnage should also be suitable for the contemplated use. Contaminated, broken, wet, weak, or unsuitable timber may create cargo risk. If old dunnage is used without proper consideration, responsibility may depend on who selected it, who approved it, and whether its condition was reasonably apparent during loading.

Removal of Dunnage After Discharge

The end-of-voyage treatment of dunnage is another frequent source of argument. In a time charter, the charterer may have an obligation to redeliver the ship in a particular condition, and unusually large quantities of dunnage may fall outside an ordinary hold-cleaning allowance. In a voyage charterparty, the position may be different because there is usually no general redelivery obligation equivalent to that found in a time charter.

In the absence of an express clause, it is often difficult to place the cost of removing unwanted dunnage on the charterer after discharge. Even where the charterer loaded, stowed, and discharged the cargo, the owner may have to remove leftover dunnage unless the charterparty clearly transfers that obligation. Modern drafting can avoid the uncertainty by stating expressly who removes dunnage, who pays, where removal must take place, and whether time counts until the task is completed.

The Gencon 1994 approach is more explicit than earlier wording. It requires the charterers to provide and lay the dunnage material needed for proper stowage and cargo protection, allows use of dunnage already on board, and places responsibility for removing charterers’ dunnage after discharge on the charterers, with time continuing to count until removal is completed. This wording reduces uncertainty and gives the owner a clearer remedy for delay caused by dunnage removal.

United States Law and Arbitration Treatment for Dunnage in Voyage Charterparty

Under United States maritime practice, the starting point is similar: unless the charterparty provides otherwise, the charterer is usually responsible for dunnage. New York arbitration decisions have treated dunnage as part of the charterer’s cargo-stowage responsibility, especially where the charterer has agreed to stow, trim, lash, secure, dunnage, and provide separation materials.

In disputes involving poor tank top condition, panels have held that the charterer may still be responsible for supplying sufficient dunnage to create an even and proper stow when the charter places dunnage on charterer’s account. In other cases, where the need for additional dunnage arose from a ship defect or from the owner’s inability to perform as contractually described, the additional cost has been placed on the owner.

United States awards also show that removal obligations require clear wording. Where the charter is silent, a charterer may not be obliged to remove dunnage placed on board. Conversely, where the charter expressly provides that charterer’s dunnage must be removed after discharge, the charterer should expect to pay removal costs and bear the time consequences stated in the charter.

Practical Drafting Points

Dunnage clauses should be drafted with more precision than is often seen in standard fixtures. The clause should identify who supplies dunnage, who pays for it, who lays it, who decides whether it is sufficient, who provides separations, whether shifting boards are included, and who removes the material after discharge. If time is to count during dunnage removal, that should be stated expressly.

Where the cargo is steel, timber, bagged commodities, bulk cargo requiring ventilation, project cargo, sensitive cargo, or multiple parcels in one hold, the clause should be adjusted to match the actual cargo operation. General words may be insufficient where the parties later disagree about whether a material was ordinary dunnage, cargo separation, ship equipment, lashing gear, cargo-securing material, or hold preparation.

Parties should also align the dunnage clause with the stowage clause, cargo description, loading responsibility, hold-cleaning clause, deck cargo clause, and any free in and out terms. A charterer who controls stowage will often be expected to control and fund cargo-specific dunnage. An owner who undertakes stowage or supplies specialised ship equipment should ensure that the clause does not unintentionally place ship-equipment obligations on the charterer.

Conclusion

Dunnage in a voyage charterparty is a small word with substantial legal and operational consequences. It protects cargo, supports safe stowage, assists ventilation, preserves separation, and may affect seaworthiness, cargo claims, loading delay, discharge costs, and post-discharge cleaning. The central question is usually not whether dunnage was useful, but who agreed to provide it and why it became necessary.

The safest commercial approach is clear drafting and early communication. Charterers should identify the cargo’s dunnage and separation requirements before loading. Owners and masters should make timely written requests if supplied material is inadequate. Both sides should record what was used, why it was required, and who controlled the relevant operation. A well-drafted dunnage clause prevents a minor loading detail from becoming a major charterparty dispute.