Not up river

A commercial manager in Germany was instructed by the owners of a ship under management not to fix cargo for this ship for voyages up the River Rhone. This followed previous bad experience of a sister ship having been delayed in transiting the river due to high water levels following a period of heavy rainfall. Unfortunately, the commercial manager subsequently fixed the ship for a cargo of steel from Genoa to Lyon and overlooked the owner’s instructions not to transit the River Rhone. This was only realised when
in a period of high water, the ship became stuck at Bollene and the owners held their commercial manager fully responsible for all costs and consequences which had arisen from their having acted without authority to fix the ship to this particular destination. Costs and expenses of US$ 75,000 were incurred.