The Hill Harmony [2000] UKHL 62
Whistler International v Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha: why route and speed are matters of employment rather than navigation, and what that makes binding on the master.
Whistler International Ltd v Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd (The Hill Harmony) [2000] UKHL 62, [2001] 1 AC 638, [2001] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 147 is the House of Lords decision that settled whether a time charterer’s routing order binds the master. It is the authority underpinning every charterer’s instruction to slow steam.
The ship was on an NYPE time charter and made two laden voyages from Vancouver to Japan in 1994. The charterers ordered a great-circle route; the master took the rhumb line, costing about USD 89,800 in delay and additional fuel. The owners argued that route selection was a matter of navigation, within the master’s exclusive province, and relied on the Hague-Visby Article IV rule 2(a) defence for error in navigation.
The House of Lords held that route choice is a matter of the employment of the vessel rather than of navigation, so the charterers’ orders were employment orders the master was obliged to follow unless safety was compromised. The error in navigation defence failed because the breach was a refusal to obey employment orders rather than a mistake of seamanship. Lord Bingham additionally treated utmost despatch as a duty that itself points to the shortest and quickest route. See utmost despatch and slow steaming .