Loading and discharging supervision

Most of what goes wrong with a cargo goes wrong in the hours when it is moving: at the hook, at the hose, in the stow, and in the rain that was not supposed to fall. By the time a claim arrives, the ship has sailed, the stevedores have gone home and the only evidence is what was written down at the time. A surveyor present for the operation is that record: what was lifted and how it was stowed and lashed, when the hatches were opened and closed and what the weather did, how much came aboard or went ashore, when work started and stopped and why. Noted while it could still be seen, not reconstructed afterwards.

Owners, charterers, shippers and receivers order it for cargo that is fragile, valuable or prone to dispute: steel, project cargo, bagged goods. Just as often for cargo that minds the weather: grain and minerals that must not see rain or damp, cargo that must be kept at a temperature or kept cool. Sometimes they want us there for the whole operation, sometimes only to keep the time or to keep the tally.

Have someone there whose only job is to watch and to record. Ask us to attend the operation.