Arrived ship doctrine
When a ship becomes an arrived ship under a port charter, and why the commercial area test was discarded in 1974.
The arrived ship doctrine decides when a vessel has reached her contractual destination so that a valid notice of readiness can be tendered and laytime can begin. Under a berth charter the destination is the berth; under a port charter it is the port, and the doctrine answers what within the port is enough.
The governing test comes from The Johanna Oldendorff [1974] AC 479: if she cannot proceed immediately to a berth, the ship is an arrived ship if she is at the usual waiting place within the geographical limits of the port, counting for turn, and at the immediate and effective disposition of the charterer. The House of Lords used the 1966 Practice Statement to depart from the earlier commercial area test in The Aello [1961] AC 135.
The full article will trace the doctrine from The Aello through The Johanna Oldendorff, cover the port and berth charter distinction, the waiting places that qualify, the effect of WIBON and WIPON, and the presumption that applies at a usual waiting place.