Kyrenia Ship. When the original ship was sailing in around 300 BC, General Average had already been in practice for 500-1,000 years.

Following several attempts to free the Ever Forward, the ship’s owner declared General Average, citing “the increasing costs arising from the continued attempts to refloat the vessel.” What this means, in practice, is that the owners of the cargo now stuck aboard the ship will not only have to wait longer to receive their cargo but will have to pay more to get it. 

The principle of general average is that all partners in a maritime venture share the risk of the venture. Specifically, the costs of any cargo loss resulting from necessary efforts to save the ship, the crew, and the rest of the cargo will be shared among the rest of the cargo owners.

Oldest precept of maritime law

General average is one of the oldest precepts of maritime law, dating back 3,000 years or more to at least the Lex Rhodia, the Rhodes Maritime Code of circa 800 BC. The Lex Rhodia itself has been lost in history, but was quoted by Julius Paulus Prudentissimus around the turn of the 3rd century. He wrote:

It is provided by the Lex Rhodia that if merchandise is thrown overboard for the purpose of lightening a ship, the loss is made good by the assessment of all which is made for the benefit of all.

One could imagine an open-deck merchant ship of several thousand years ago, fully loaded with bags, crates, and amphorae, getting caught in a storm. Waves are breaking over the gunnels and there is a very real likelihood that the ship, its crew, and cargo may soon sink to the bottom. The crew starts heaving cargo overboard to lighten the load and increase the freeboard of the beleaguered ship. 

Should the ship survive the storm, the owners of the jettisoned cargo would have suffered a substantial loss, while the owners of the cargo still aboard would benefit from their loss. Under the principle of general average, the owners of the cargo that made it safely to port would be asked to help compensate the owners of the jettisoned cargo for their loss.

Modern General Average

The first modern codification of general average was the York Antwerp Rules of 1890. The York Antwerp Rules are still in force and were updated in 1994, 2004 and 2016.

General average requires three elements :

• A common danger: a danger in which vessel, cargo and crew all participate; a danger imminent and apparently ‘inevitable’, except by voluntarily incurring the loss of a portion of the whole to save the remainder.
• There must be a voluntary jettison, or casting away, of some portion of the joint concern for the purpose of avoiding this imminent peril, periculi imminentis evitandi causa, or, in other words, a transfer of the peril from the whole to a particular portion of the whole.
• This attempt to avoid the imminent common peril must be successful.

Recent Declarations of General Average

• The MV Hyundai Fortune declared general average following an explosion and fire in 2006 off the coast of Yemen.
• The M/V MSC Sabrina declared general average in effect after grounding in the Saint Lawrence river on 8 March 2008.
• The owners of the Hanjin Osaka declared general average following an explosion in the ship’s engine room on 8 January 2012.
• Maersk declared general average for Maersk Honam after a fire in the Arabian Sea in March 2018.
• The owners of the Northern Jupiter declared general average following an engine fire on 28 January 2020.
• Shoei Kisen, the owners of the Ever Given, declared general average following the grounding of the vessel in the Suez Canal on 23 March 2021, resulting in a six-day shutdown of traffic in the canal until it was freed by 11 tugs and two dredgers.
• Evergreen Marine, the owners of the Ever Forward, declared general average on 31 March 2022 following the grounding of the vessel in Chesapeake Bay.