Distress freight. When a ship is in a berth to load cargo but the cargo offered by shippers does not meet the owner’s or charterer’s expectations, and the owner or charterer experiences difficulty in securing completion cargo at original freight rates, they may resort to booking cargo at very low rates (“distress rates”) to fill up the remaining space rather than be forced to despatch the vessel with vacant space. This may have an effect on the scheduled sailing time: the vessel may continue to receive cargo beyond the sailing time until the cargo compartments are fully loaded or the ship is “dawn to her marks”, that is, loaded to the permitted “load lines”.
