Shifting boards. In older ships loading grain in bulk, all necessary and reasonable precautions were taken to prevent the grain from shifting by fitting shifting boards.
For ships fixed for loading a full cargo of bulk grain, the condition that the vessel must be in all respects ready to load not only implied that the cargo compartments had to be clean, dry and ready to receive the cargo of grain, but shifting boards also had to be in place. A surveyor’s certificate to this effect was produced when serving notice of readiness on the charterer or his agents. Now, ships are designed specially to carry grain safely in bulk and shifting boards may not be necessary. In any case the ship must possess a “document of authorisation”.
