Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
“SAFER SHIPS; CLEANER SEAS”—FULL SPEED AHEAD OR DEAD SLOW?
Rt Hon. Lord Donaldson of Lymington*
I was delighted to be invited to deliver this annual lecture in honour of Donald O’May, for 11 years the senior partner of Ince & Co., who died in 1988. He was known world-wide as the expert in total loss cases, beginning with his successful charge of scuttling in the landmark case of The Tropaioforos.1 But his expertise was far wider than that and he played a leading role as adviser to the London insurance and reinsurance markets on the Institute Clauses and on war risks in the context of hijacking, the blocking of the Suez Canal and the India-Pakistan war. Those who knew him, whether professionally or socially or both, remember him with admiration and affection. It is a real pleasure that his widow, Beryl O’May, is able to be here this evening, accompanied by their son Neil.
This lecture is essentially about three ships and the contribution which they have made or are making, to safety at sea. They are the Braer, the Derbyshire and the Sea Empress.
The Braer
On 5 January 1993 the Braer, laden with 84,000 tons of crude oil, went onto the rocks in the Shetland Islands. It had the potential for being a major ecological disaster, although, in the event, a combination of very high winds and an unusually volatile crude oil ensured that the consequences were far less serious than at first seemed probable.
At the time I was skiing in Switzerland and my personal involvement began when I returned to my hotel in the evening to be told that a “Mr Tamport” wanted me to ring him in London. I had never heard of “Mr Tamport” and I did not recognize the number. Motivated largely by curiosity, I duly rang the number which I had been given. It was a bad line made worse by the habit of Swiss pay phones to utter one second “beeps” if you used a credit card instead of money. It emerged that the mysterious “Mr Tamport” was in fact the “Ministry of Transport”. The purpose of the call was to enquire whether I would chair an inquiry, not into the circumstances leading to the loss of the Braer, but generally into what further measures could and should be taken to reduce the risk of pollution to the United Kingdom coastline from merchant shipping. Naturally I wanted to ask questions before deciding, but I was told that I had to answer at once as the Secretary of State was making a statement in the House of Commons within 15 minutes. So I said “yes”.
I have never regretted an impulsive decision less. Ship safety, and the consequences of any lack of it, is a topic which is as fascinating as it is complex. Furthermore, although
* Master of the Rolls 1982-1992; President. British Maritime Law Association 1979-1995; Chairman, Inquiry into Prevention of Pollution from Merchant Shipping 1993-1994. The Donald O’May Lecture delivered at the Institute of Maritime Law, University of Southampton, on 12 November 1997.
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