Dock charter. A “dock” is an area within a port within which cargo can be loaded of discharged. It can be enclosed by “dock walls” or “breakwaters”. In relation to chartering, a dock can be a named destination for the ship to be an “arrived ship” and laytime commencing under a voyage charter or hire commencing under a time charter. A dock, as a destination in a dock charter, is less specific than a berth (a place within a dock or port) under a berth charter and more specific than a port in a port charter.
In a dock charter the ship reaches its destination when it enters the dock area. In a famous case in the English House of Lords, The Johanna Oldendorff, 1973, dealing with the issue of an “arrived ship”, a dock was described as: “A dock encloses a comparatively small area entered through a gate. There is no difficulty in saying whether a vessel has arrived in it. As soon as a berth is vacant in the dock a vessel already moored inside the dock cart get there within an interval so short that for practical business purposes of loading or discharging cargo it can be ignored.”
In modern chartering, “berth charters” and “port charters” are more commonly used than “dock charters”.
