MASTERS - ASSESSMENT 1 The mv "Sheriff" (the vessel) is one of the 11 ships owned by a South African registered company, Blue Seas Shipping (BSS). All BSS vessels are flagged in Panama and ply the trade between Brazil and the Far East. 355 vessels call intothe Port of Cape Town, in both directions, especially for bunkering as 355 deems Cape Town as a convenient mid-point for the company's trade. On 21 July the Sheriff was on her voyage to Chennai (India) from Port Santos (Brazil) with a cargo of near ripe citrus fruit. The master of the Sheriff, Dude McDaddy, decided not to stem bunkers (fuel up) in Cape Town but to pass. The reason for this was that, while he was out at sea, he received a report from another vessel, the my "Soldier", also owned by BSS, advising that the Cape Town port was heavily congested following a violent stevedores' strike that had led to indefinite port closure. The Soldier was ordered to outer anchorage until the officials had brought the strike under control. McDaddy then sailed past Cape Town with a view of taking bunkers at Dar es Salaam where the BSS fleet, also calls for bunkers albeit rarely. As the Sheriff approached Mauritius, McDaddy received another report that "the Dar es Salaam port is experiencing heavy rains and high winds. All port operations have been temporarily suspended until inclement weather subsides..." Although it was late in the afternoon, McDaddy decided to set the vessel on course back to Port Louis in Mauritius. McDaddy reached Mauritius at dusk. While the vessel was still making its approach to port, she ran out of bunkers and the main engine switched off. McDaddy sent an urgent distress call to port for bunkers or towage. The only two Mauritius port's distress tugs were engaged in another emergency. The port advised that assistance would be sent as soon as possible. The Sheriff drifted slowly through the night. Pushed by the wind, the Sheriff eventually grounded on a rocky part of the shore a few miles outside the port. She sustained substantial hull damage. The next morning the port tugs arrived and managed to tow her to safety. However, during the course of the night while the Sheriff was aground, she lost 10 containers that were dislodged by wave action in the dark. YOUR TASKS You are the Executive Manager: Logistics at BSS at their branch in Cape Town. The BSS CEO has received a claim from the cargo owners who lost their containers. On the basis of the applicable law and the relevant cases respond to the following tasks. Task 1A Bearing in mind the principles governing deviation under common law, set out the position to your boss strictly on the above facts. In particular your CEO wants to know the prospects of success if she defends this claim on the grounds that the deviation was justied. l10I Task 13 Assume that 355 had an insurance contract which provides that: \"Deviation will be excusable where the vessel undertook to save human life or cargo or deviation was undertaken for any other reasonable cause. Deviation for bunkering and for onboarding and disembarkation of crew is specifically excluded ..," (5l [You are at liberty to deal with Tasks 1A and 13 in a composite answer -as one] Task 2 For the purposes ofthis task (Task 2) assume that the cargo of containers onboard the Sheriff had to be discharged first; using specialised cranes onto a special platform for safe container stacking. From there these containers were road hauled to the port for on carriage to India by the Soldier, when she eventually arrives from Cape Town. The haulier company, Pholobas Transport (PT), demands payment from BSS for R3 million, PT