Who is liable in a two Master system?

Abstract

The workload of the Master onboard vessels in short sea traffic is sometimes high and the area of responsibility is wide. Therefore, some ship owners have started to use two Masters onboard at the same time, in order to share the duties and responsibilities of the Master. If the Masters’ responsibilities such as seaworthiness is divided between two persons within the same voyage, there might be situations where the liability is complicated. The maritime law is made for the traditional model with only one Master onboard. Routines and liability is of high importance within a two Master system. Different routines and different two Master systems will affect the liability to some extent.