Fair trade?

摘要

One of my first experiences of the various problems that can lie in store when transacting second hand vessels concerned the sale of the Empress of Britain in 1965. The vessel was the lead ship of three Empress liners and because of this the Shipbuilding Specification included the spare propellers, propeller shafts and other large spare parts, the intention being that these would be common to all three ships and held in store at Liverpool. The Shipbuilding Specification did not of course mention this and the memorandum of agreement issued by the Norwegian Shipbrokers Association, or Norwegian Sale Form (NSF), which invariably governed second hand vessel transactions during my time, included the standard clause stating that everything belonging to the ship both onboard, ashore and on order becomes the buyers property on delivery. The buyers insisted on having these spares and the two remaining Empress Liners were therefore without cover until replacements could be obtained.