My Brilliant Career
From arresting ships to securing shipwrecks, master mariner Malcolm Hartwell is never bored with maritime law
What is a master mariner? It refers to what used to be called a master foreign-going certificate of competency, and entitles the holder to command any type of ship on any voyage in the world.What sorts of issues do you have to address as a maritime lawyer? Maritime lawyers are privileged to deal with a wide range of issues governed by various legal systems and very rarely have any cases that are similar to another. I mainly act for ship and cargo owners and their insurers in dealing with claims arising out of the operation of their ship. Because of my background, the bulk of my practice involves casualties such as sinkings, collisions, groundings and fires at sea. These normally involve investigating the cause of an incident, determining in which countries those claims can be pursued, securing those claims and pursuing them. I also act for a number of shipping banks and commodity traders and provide advice to the former on loan agreements and enforcement of mortgages on ships...
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