It’s 2035 and a maritime court has convened to determine who’s at fault when a seagoing vessel made an error in passage planning -- a safety exercise that maps a voyage from start to finish, including harbour navigation and docking.

Choice of law clauses are a valuable tool for parties to preemptively decide which jurisdiction’s laws should apply to the enforcement and interpretation of insurance policies.

Flames engulfed a marina in Seattle’s University District, burning dozens of boats early Wednesday. According to the Seattle Fire Department, as many as 30 boats at a dry rack storage facility were burning when firefighters arrived and the fire had spread to an adjacent warehouse.

Fire and explosion incidents are behind the most expensive insurance claims in the marine industry, while cargo damage is the most frequent cause of loss, according to a report by Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS).

Heather O’Brien’s phone hasn’t stopped ringing in the two weeks since Hurricane Ian hit. O’Brien, who along husband Capt. Pat O’Brien has owned the Fort Myers Sea Tow franchise since 1996, already has responded to ‘hundreds’ of situations where boats were sunk or displaced or need to be recovered because of the storm.

Property and casualty insurance providers across the country wrote more than $797 billion in premiums in 2021, generating about $767 billion in earned premiums, the latest industry report from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) has revealed.

On Friday, August 19, a huge fire ripped through the historic and family-owned Mattapoisett Boatyard in southern Massachusetts, a short distance south of MWL’s Boston office. The fire destroyed five buildings, three dozen cars, and countless expensive boats.

A huge fire at a marina in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, on Friday left several boats and vehicles as burned-out shells and produced a plume of black smoke so thick it was picked up by weather radar.

Ocean transportation procurement teams and vessel owners alike would do well to pay close attention to the effects of recent notable maritime perils that have triggered claims for general average.

The insurance and reinsurance industry loss from the conflict in Ukraine could exceed US $20 billion, according to Verisk-owned specialist claims and loss data unit PCS.

Lloyd’s of London has announced that it is working with the government of the United Kingdom for the implementation of sanctions against Russian firms due to the war in Ukraine, including cancelling their insurance policies.

A burnt-out cargo ship carrying thousands of luxury cars, including Porsches and Bentleys, sank on Tuesday off the Portuguese Azores archipelago nearly two weeks after it caught fire, a port official said.

A cargo ship carrying vehicles from Germany to the U.S caught fire in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday and remains adrift near the Azores Islands. The Portuguese navy rescued all the 22 crew members from the ship, named the Felicity Ace, which was scheduled to arrive in the Port of Davisville, Rhode Island, on Feb. 23.

An electrical fault from an improperly disconnected battery in a used vehicle led to the fire aboard a cargo ship docked in Florida that resulted in $40 million worth of damage, officials said Thursday.

The chocked-up marine supply chain, as illustrated by news photos of ships sitting at ports for long periods waiting to be unloaded, is becoming an issue of increasing concern to the insurance industry.