ABSTRACT
A shipowner acting as master, officer crew or pilot on board his own ship can, of course, by negligent navigation cause damage to or the loss of his own ship. In this regard, there are two clauses which would have to be read with cl 6.2.2. First, cl 6.3 states that ‘master officers, crew, or pilots’ are ‘not to be considered as Owners within the meaning of cl 6 should they hold shares in the Vessel’. Secondly, the proviso to cl 6.2 has to be complied with before the shipowner would be allowed to recover for any loss falling within one of the perils enumerated therein. The relationship between cll 6.2.2, 6.3 and the proviso is not at all clear. In fact, on first reading, they could well appear to be contradictory but, as can be seen shortly, they could also be interpreted so as to complement each other. There is no litigation in the British courts on this subject. Nonetheless, the wording, scheme and objective of the clauses will have to be examined.
