contact: steve@findlaymarine.com

Speed & Consumption

Delayed arrival, voyage deviations, missed cargoes, lost profits, and excess fuel consumption are some of the more gentle aspects of today's speed claims. There is probably no more cantankerous and bitter claim in all of maritime arbitration than the speed and consumption dispute stemming from those simple words, '...capable of steaming fully laden under good weather conditions up to and including Beaufort Force 4 and Douglas Sea State Scale 3 about......knots on about ..... tons IFO and about ..... tons MDO per day....'

Owners facing speed claims often take them personally and respond with fierce, steadfast efforts. Charterers, on the other hand, left with no other remedy to a commercial deal gone sour due to missed deadlines, move ruthlessly. They withhold hire as 'self-protection' from the last few hire payments even while cargo is on board and the vessel is under way to the discharge port.

But in today's modern world of computer weather guidance, are the claims too reliant on old-fashioned terminology and chartering practices? Now that the world has moved into the 21st century, shouldn't speed and consumption practices do likewise?

Beaufort Scale

William Allingham, in his 1900 A Manual of Marine Meteorology, which was one of the first modern era technical books on the topic, wrote that, 'the speed of Beaufort's ship is the test for forces 2, 3 and 4; whereas, for the next five units of the scale, the maximum possible sail carried on a wind is the basis for comparison.' In other words, the vessel's performance was at its best at force 4 and below. This concept has prevailed in the industry over the course of the last century.

In 1805, Captain Beaufort developed the original scale which was silent as to wind speed values corresponding to the force scale. Changes in sailing ship design and the emergence of steamers forced changes over the next 100 years. While 1906 is often given as the year in which wind speed equivalents were introduced, Allingham showed a table of wind speeds/scales in his 1900 text.

At the time, non-uniformity in the use of the Beaufort Scale was widespread. For example, the United States Weather Bureau began to use a 12 force Beaufort Scale in 1905, switching to a 7-point scale from 1909 to 1914, after which it reverted to the 12-force scale. In 1926, the International Hydrographic Bureau published A Summary of Data on Wind Force and The Beaufort Scale in an attempt to gain uniformity among the world's various meteorological agencies on the terms and wind speeds corresponding to the Beaufort Scale.

While most of the controversy dealt with the use of descriptive terms for the wind speed intervals associated with the upper limits of the scale such as Great Storm and at what speed does a hurricane begin, there was little disagreement over the lower portions of the scale. The final international form of the scale in use today was adopted in 1946.

Douglas Sea State Scale

In his 1900 text and its 1927 update, Allingham showed Sea State Scale tables applicable to both sea and swell that ranged from 0 (Dead Calm) to 9 (Tremendous). While neither of these tables assigned fixed wave heights, the US Weather Bureau, in its 1929 Circular M instructions to Marine Meteorological Observers, did so with Scale 3 as slight sea at two to three feet.

Subsequent to the 1929 International Meteorology Conference, the term Douglas Sea and Swell Scale appears in Meteorology for Masters and Mates Eighth Edition, 1933. It did not include heights and differed from the previous scale in that 'very smooth' was deleted with the result that Scale 3 was then listed as moderate. The 1938 edition of Circular M showed Scale 3 as moderate seas at three to five feet with advice to the observer that the scale of the sea is approximate and based roughly on the observer's judgment as to the wave height.

References to Douglas Sea and Swell Scale appear more regularly in maritime literature after 1938, with Scale 3 sometimes listed as moderate and sometimes as slight. Currently, the World Meteorology Organisation's (WMO) Sea State Scale lists Scale 3 as slight, with heights ranging from 0.50 to 1.25 meters. The heights referred to are the average wave heights obtained from the larger well-formed waves of the wave system.

About

Use of the simple word 'about' can send parties into a complete spiral death march as the panel hears arguments for and against making allowances to the charter party values. Owners will frequently argue that the inclusion of 'about' grants a simultaneous and separate allowance to both speed and consumption, while charterers maintain that the 'about' speed includes an allowance for consumption. Currently, it is the unusual award which differs from the normal trade practice allowance of half a knot for the 'about' speed and a variation depending on the facts of the case but usually either three or five per cent on the 'about' consumption.

Good weather conditions

There is a joke about the bloke who, while building a house, went to buy planks at the builders yard and, when asked how long he wanted them, replied, "A long time, because I want to live in the house a long time".

The same question applies to how much good weather the vessel has to have for a good weather day. As the usual period defining the average speed of the vessel is the steaming day noon-to-noon distance divided by the length of the steaming day, how many of these hours need be good weather? There are awards in both New York and London which give 12 hours as the minimum period of good weather conditions and, while it may exist, I know of no award which demands good weather for all hours of the steaming day.

A typical speed claim

Within a claim, one of the major threshold issues is what weather conditions and oceanic currents the vessel experienced. Owners will point to the deck logs, while charterers will frequently use a commercial weather service report. Faced with both, and without explicit charter party language instructing the panel, the question of which to use will be hotly debated by the parties. As to ocean currents, I see both London and New York awards making allowance for adverse and favourable currents.

Questions of self-interest and the accuracy of weather observations and analyses will be raised by both sides. In my opinion, this argument can be overcome if the industry looks carefully at the use of the Beaufort Scale, and particularly the Douglas Sea State Scale.