【Ship's agent】
Person who looks after the interests of a ship while she is in port. His duties include the arranging of pilotage, towage and a berth for the ship, the signing of bills of lading and the collection of freight. The agent is paid a fee, agreed in advance with the shipowner.
【船舶代理】
船舶在港期间照管船舶利益的人。其职责包括安排船舶的引航、拖轮与靠泊，提单签发，运费收取等。船东按事先同意向代理支付费用。
船舶代理的授权，首先来自委托人的指示，其次来自港口习惯。
代理有义务行事with reasonable care, diligence and skill，否则代理要承担后果。
案例: Lage V. Siemens (1932) 42 Ll. L. Rep. 252
另一起伦敦仲裁中,Lond. Arb. 4/99 (L.M.L.N. 504)，代理没有及时通知船东港方收取额外费用，判要自己承担部分产生的费用。作者: delphine 时间: 2012-5-12 20:11
【Owner's agent】
Ship's agent nominated by, and paid by, the shipowner in accordance with the charter-party.
【船东代理】
由船东根据租船合同所指定并支付费用的船舶代理。
【Charterer's agent】
Ship's agent nominated by the voyage charterer in accordance with the charter-party. Although nominated by the charterer, the agent is paid by, and is responsible to, the shipowner. See also Ship's agent.
【租家代理】
由航次租船人根据租船合同指定的船舶代理。尽管由租船人指定，该代理由船东支付费用，并对船东负责。参见“船舶代理”。
Peter R. Brodie(Editor), Dictionary of Shipping Terms, LLP Professional Publishing, 2001.作者: delphine 时间: 2012-5-12 20:14
这是行业的习惯做法，条款规定相对简单，如：
GENCON 1994 – Uniform General Charter
Clause 14. Agency
In every case the Owners shall appoint their own Agent both at the port of loading and the port of discharge.
【比较】
GENCON 1976
Clause 13. Agency
In every case the Owners shall appoint his own Broker or Agent both at the port of loading and the port of discharge.
历史上，船舶往往通过卸货港当地的代理揽取“回程货”，代理同时充当经纪的角色。现代航运业分工更加专业化，经纪行业和代理行业已经分离，GENCON合同1994版本已删去了Broker。
ASBATANKVOY Charter Party 1977
Clause 22. AGENTS
The Owners shall appoint Vessel’s agents at all ports.作者: delphine 时间: 2012-5-12 20:26
2.2 代理由租家指定，船东委托
“租家代理”浮出水面了
BALTIMORE FORM 1976 – Berth Grain Charter Party
Agents
…… At loading port/s, Owners to appoint and employ agents as selected by Charterers. At discharging port/s, Owners to appoint and employ agents as selected by Charterers.
又如
SUGAR CHARTER-PARTY 1999
Clause 7. AGENTS
At port(s) of loading and discharging Owners to appoint, employ and to be solely responsible for Agents, as selected by Charterers without risk or liability to Charterers, for all ship’s business, owners paying the agency fees. (糖类贸易及运输,控制在ABCD为首的大粮商手中,垄断性强,制定的条款也极苛刻,如这一个关于代理的例子. 有兴趣研究一下大租家准备如何"欺凌"小船东的, 认真看看SUGAR CHARTER-PARTY应有收获 )
2.3 明确约定代理的名称
AMWELTH 93 – AMERICANIZED WELSH COAL CHARTER
Clause 17. Agents
The Vessel shall be consigned to …… agents at port(s) of loading, and to …… agents at port(s) of discharge.
类似规定的还有
CEMENTVOY 2006 - VOYAGE CHARTER PARTY FOR THE TRANSPORTATION OF BULK CEMENT
Clause 36. Agency
At the port(s) of loading the Vessel shall be consigned to the Agents as stated in Box 31(i) and at the port(s) of discharge to the Agents as stated in Box 31(ii), the Owners always paying the customary fees.
GRAINCON 2003 – BIMCO Standard Grain Voyage Charter Party
Clause 27. Agents
The Owners*/Charterers* shall nominate agents at loading port(s) and the Owners*/Charterers* shall nominate agents at discharge port(s).
The Owners shall appoint agents as nominated above. In all instances, agency fee shall be for Owners’s account but shall not exceed customary applicable fees.
*Delete as appropriate.
Norgrain 89 – NORTH AMERICAN GRAIN CHARTERPARTY
Clause 29. Agents
Owners*/Charterers* are to appoint agents at loading port(s) and Owners*/Charterers* are to appoint agents at discharging port(s).
In all instances, agency fees shall be for Owners’ account but are not to exceed customary applicable fees.
* Delete as appropriate.
总体来看，租家代理的方式，已经被广泛接受，并纳入许多租船合同范本中。船东组织如BIMCO或经纪人协会如ASBA拟定的合同范本，多由船东选择代理；货主、贸易商和行业协会等组织侧重租家利益，所拟定的合同范本大都规定租家指定代理，甚至包括对船东更为苛刻的内容，如上面SUGAR C/P 1999中的 “without risk or liability to Charterers”。
Clause 24. AGENCY AND DISBURSEMENTS
At load/discharge ports, the vessel(s) shall be consigned to agents nominated by the Charterer.
Agency fees as customary shall be for Owners' account. Owners undertake to provide the nominated agents with funds sufficient to cover Vessel(s) disbursements prior to arrival at the respective ports and acknowledge that pursuant to Charterers' worldwide agency arrangements, Charterers' may receive appointment fees from the nominated agents, which shall be for Charterers' benefit.作者: delphine 时间: 2012-5-12 22:13
Agency:
Vessel agents shall be nominated by Charterers at loading and discharging port(s), provided rate is competitive. Customary agency fees shall be for the Owners' account.
INTERTANKO AGENCY CLAUSE：
Where charterers under this charterparty have the right to nominate the vessel's agents at any port and they wish to exercise such right, they shall do so at the same time as the nomination of such port and they shall exercise due diligence to ensure that such agents are reliable, competent, competitive in price and service and (where possible) have ISO 9002 (or substantially equivalent) certification. If charterers fail to nominate the agent at the time that the port is nominated then owners may reject any subsequent nomination of agents by charterers. The appointment of such agents is subject always to owners' right to appoint protective agents in any port if they so wish.
扬先生的《装卸时间与滞期费》是关于“滞期费”的专著，案情介绍中涉及“代理”的部分很简略。查阅LMLN（Lloyds’ Maritime Law Newsletter）285，对“租家代理”的内容补充整理如下：
该航次租船合同是Asbatankvoy格式，附加条款第8条为：
Any claim for demurrage must be received by [charterers] in writing with supporting documents within 90 days of final discharge and where this provision is not complied with, the claim shall be deemed to be waived and absolutely barred.
附加条款第11条为：
Owners to appoint agents nominated by charterers at both load and discharge ports.
在装货港租家指定（nominate）了代理，它是该港唯一的代理，船东也依照合同委托（appoint）该代理。之后，船东先后两次向代理索要Notice of Readiness，Statement of Facts和Timesheet，但代理迟迟不予回复。最终船东递交装港文件时间超过卸货结束后90天的时效期限。
船东向仲裁庭提出，租家应指定“胜任的”代理，否则应对其后果负责：
…… the owners contended that the charterers were bound, under additional clause 11, to nominate reasonably competent agents; they did not do so and that caused the owners to be unable to comply with additional clause 8 (Demurrage time bar clause).
仲裁庭并不倾向支持船东的争辩：
…… So far as the owners’ …… argument was concerned, there might well be a question whether, in a contract which provided for a named loading port at which there was only one agent (a fact which ought to have been known to the owners even if they did not have actual knowledge of it), there was any room for implying a duty on the charterers to nominate reasonably competent agents. Probably the answer to that question was in the negative. But even assuming that there was some such duty on the charterers, further questions arose, namely: were the agents reasonably competent? and if not, did their incompetence cause the owners’ loss?
最终，仲裁庭判船东追索装港文件不够及时和积极，自己承担错过90天时效的后果：
The cause of the owners’ loss was their own failure earlier and more vigorously to have sought to obtain the documents…… That broke the chain of causation between any breach of the (assumed) obligation on the charterers to nominate reasonably competent agents, and the owners’ inability to recover any demurrage.
【Protecting agent】
Person or company appointed by a shipowner to protect his interests and to supervise the work carried out by the ship's agent when the owner's ship is in port. The ship's agent may be the only agent at the port or he may have been appointed or nominated by the charterer and therefore not the choice of the shipowner. Also referred to as a supervisory agent or protective agent.
【保护代理】
由船东委任的个人或公司，在该船东的船舶在港期间，保护船东的利益，并监督船舶代理的工作。船舶代理可能是该港唯一的代理，或是由租家指定的代理，船东无代理选择权。参见“监护代理”。
- Peter R. Brodie(Editor), Dictionary of Shipping Terms, LLP Professional Publishing, 2001.
PROTECTIVE AGENTS
When chartering out our vessels, it may be prudent and in some cases necessary to appoint protective agents to look after owners’ interest. Do not be penny wise, pound foolish. The savings that we can achieve by using good and effective protective agents (through reduced costs or quicker dispatch) could more than offset the fee payable to the protective agents. As a rule, we should at least consult or check on local conditions with our representatives where we do have area offices.
Example Elaboration
MV ABC – Voyage Charter
By paying USD 1,500 only to Barwil Agency, our protective agents at Cigading, we managed to avoid paying USD 43,000 which the charterers’ agents claimed to be payable as surcharge fee for using iron ore berth to receive wheat cargo.
MV XYZ – Time Charter
Vessel has scheduled to load petcoke (which required ‘clean’ holds) at Port Arthur right after completion of discharge of bauxite at Point Comfort. In view of the short ballast leg of 12 hours and the deteriorated holds condition, we appointed Alan Basden as our protective agents who took proactive action of sending a surveyor to Point Comfort to advise vessel/crew on steps to take prevent holds failure. As a result, no delay occurred.
We want to save money. We do not want to waste money but remember we must not be penny-wise pound-foolish.作者: delphine 时间: 2012-5-12 22:47
在Sutton Shipping Co. v. Graham’s Trading Co. (1927)29 Ll. L. Rep. 12中，船舶代理被裁定同时代表船东和租家，但无权使用船东的备用金支付租家费用。
下面的美国仲裁案例，涉及代理权限及港口费用是否合理的问题。
【案例】
The Express Patriot, SMA 3899 (2005) (Arnoald, Bulow, Hansen)
航次租船合同，第28条规定：
Charterers are to nominate vessel’s agents at loading port … In all instances, agency fees shall be for Owners’ account but are not exceed customary applicable fees.
同时，船东争辩，代理在靠泊申请中接受了码头公司的费率，并没有得到船东的授权，该行为对船东无约束力：
(Owner) further argues that the Vessel is not obligated to accept the terms of (Terminal)’s tariff by virtue of Bluewater's signing the berthing application on the Vessel's behalf, inasmuch as Bluewater was acting as Charterer's agent, not Owner's. …… where a charterer selects an Agent and the vessel owner exercises no control over that choice, and where the vessel owner exerts no control over the conduct of that agent, the agent lacks authority to bind the vessel owner when making berthing arrangements.
仲裁庭驳回了船东的争辩，判USD 51,500由船东承担。
仲裁庭认为，首先，船舶租金的高低对判断码头延误费是否合理并没有影响；其次，关于代理问题，船东已经接受Bluewater Shipping作为船舶代理，其申请泊位的行为是代表船东，并对船东有约束力：
By accepting Clause 28, (Owner) had agreed to the use of Bluewater Shipping as the Vessel's agents for the loading in New Orleans. If indeed (Owner) was not satisfied with the nominated agents or lacked faith in their qualifications, (Owner) could have retained the services of a protective agent.
Not at all. We all need to understand how charterer's agency develops over time. You've done a good job even though it might have changed a bit since then.
Awaiting your further update.作者: sarahwang 时间: 2017-4-18 10:57
