Seaboard Marine is chasing the owner of a boxship that it chartered briefly in 2017 as the liner operator seeks damages totalling $4.7m.
The Miami-based company claimed it was out of pocket for that amount because the 2,082-teu Marivia (built 2001) was delivered in very poor condition, which forced it to terminate the charter early.
Nearly four years later Seaboard arrested the ship in Singapore as security for a London arbitration proceeding.
The arrest could not have come at a more inconvenient time for Liberian Angel Shipping & Trading, the registered owner of the ship. The company was known as Marivia Shipping & Trading until February 2020.
Liberian Angel sold the Marivia for $6.1m in early March of this year. Swiss liner giant Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) was reported by brokers as being the buyer.
German shipowner and manager Herm Dauelsberg, the Marivia's commercial and technical manager, told TradeWinds the arrest came without warning.
Responding to emailed questions, the company said the arbitration had been progressing well until “opponents decided to seek security for their claim and arrested the vessel without any prior notice as it would have been common practice”.
Herm Dauelsberg said that Seaboard had rejected various "normally accepted" security options it had proposed for the arbitration proceedings.
However, the manager claimed on Thursday that both parties had now agreed to an escrow account solution that was “in the final steps of arrangement,” and subject to cooperation from Seaboard and the High Court of Singapore, it hoped to secure the immediate release of the vessel.
Herm Dauelsberg also said that the arrest had not affected the sales process for the ship.
The company said it was contractually obliged not to disclose any details of the transaction or the identity of the buyer.
“From our side this is a purely commercial decision and by no means linked to the ongoing arbitration. In fact, the decision was made by the owners before legal action commenced,” the company said.
Troubled charter
Seaboard agreed in August 2017 to charter the Marivia for 24 to 28 months at a rate of $7,700 per day.
The vessel, which had been laid up prior to the charter, was delivered to Seaboard at the Mexican port of Manzanillo on 2 October 2017.
Serious technical problems quickly came to light as the Marivia began making its first voyages on Seaboard’s liner services between the US east coast and the Caribbean.
Seaboard claimed that the ship was incapable of reaching the described speed and many of its 432 electrical sockets for refrigerated containers were not working.
Adding to the technical woes were engine breakdowns and a costly engine-room oil spill.
Repairs were undertaken by the Marivia’s technical managers, who declared the vessel seaworthy and fit for purpose on 13 November 2017.
Seaboard’s surveyors disagreed.
On 24 November 2017, Seaboard terminated the charter claiming that the vessel had been off-hire for more than 20 days and the owners were in breach of contract as the ship was still not fit for purpose.
The Marivia was subsequently chartered to AP Moller-Maersk, which has it on hire until 13 April.
