Maritime Towage

• Author: Edgar Gold; Aldo Chircop; Hugh M. Kindred; William Moreira
• Pages: 748-778

748

CH A PTE R 17

M A R I TIME TOWAGE

A. INTRODUCT ION

To tow means to employ one vessel to supply power to, or to expedite

the movement of another vessel.1 In practice, towage may include a var-

iety of services, including holding, pushing, pulling, moving, escorting,

guiding, or standing by the hirer’s vessel.2 Very often ships of all sizes,

including those possessing their own means of propulsion, require the

assistance of another vessel to be navigated safely. Such assistance may

be required to enable a ship to make or leave a berth, dock or canal,

or perform any manoeuvre in conf‌ined areas. Some ships do not have

propulsion and therefore need towage services to move them from one

place to another. Thus a dumb barge (an open barge with no propul-

sion) can only be moved in tow. Likewise, offshore installations often

require towage to and from offshore areas, frequently assisted by a f‌lo-

tilla of tugs.

The practice of towing is as ancient as shipping itself. In Egypt, gal-

leys with oars were employed to tow barges loaded with stone in the

1 Princess Alice (The) (1849), 3 W Rob 138 at 139–40; Stevens v The White City, 52

S Ct 347 (1932) [Stevens]. The transportation of a ship on land is not towage:

Toronto Window Mfg Co v The Audrey S, [1965] 1 Ex CR 83.

2 Def‌inition of “towing” in article 1(b)(i) of the UK Standard Conditions for Tow-

age and Other Services 1986 [UKSTC], reprinted in Nicholas Gaskell, Charles

Debattista, & Richard Swatton, eds, Chorley & Giles’ Shipping Law, 8th ed (Lon-

don: Pitman, 1987) appendix 10.

Maritime Towage 749

building of the pyramids.3 In many port facilities of the Roman Empire,

there were f‌leets of harbour tugs employed to row the larger trading

vessels into the dock or to an anchorage, purportedly with the object-

ive of maximizing precious harbour space and expediting the voyage.4

After the collapse of the Roman Empire towage seems to have prevailed

primarily for the purpose of ensuring the safety of vessels coming into

port.5 With the application of steam power to ships in the 1820s and

1830s, the usefulness of small and powerful tugs for assisting larger

ships into port or up and down rivers, and for navigating rivers with

barges and log booms was quickly recognized. Today there are a multi-

tude of tugboat designs to fulf‌il each of the functions accorded to them

in antiquity, and towage remains an important service for the safe navi-

gation of different ships in a variety of conditions.

Towage is provided as a result of a contract of towage and thus the

fundamental responsibilities of both ships are governed by the terms,

conditions, and exemptions of the towage agreement, whether express

or implied. In common law jurisdictions, with the notable exception

of the United States, there is no special statute to regulate towage other

than rules of general application such as the Collision Regulations.6

Thus, the matter has been left to the courts and contract. Towage law is

therefore a blend of contract and tort law.7

B. TY PES OF TUGS

The vessel that provides the power is called the tug or towboat. The tow

is the vessel employing the tug. In general, it is not necessary for the

ship that provides towage to be a purpose-built vessel. However, ships

3 Donal Baird, Under Tow: A Canadian History of Tugs and Towing (St Catharines,

ON: Vanwell Publishing, 2003) at 19.

4 Lionel Casson, Travel in the Ancient World (London: Allen & Unwin, 1974) at 157.

5 The Navigation Code of the Port of Arles of AD 1150, provides at article C144

that seamen have a duty to assist vessels in need of assistance entering the port.

Provisions to the same effect were also enacted in the Rules of Oléron, chapter

1266, article XXV, the Consulate of the Sea (1494) article 159-A, and the Ordinanc-

es of Bilbao (1511) chapter 26. Towage (as an activity) was not regulated in the

Ordonnance de Colbert or in the French Code de Commerce of 1807 or the codes

that followed its model. Equally, in England the f‌irst case deciding upon a towage

contract was heard in 1843. Alex Parks, The Law of Tug, Tow and Pilotage, 3d ed

(Centreville, MD: Cornell Maritime Press, 1994) at 6.

6 CRC, c 1416.

7 Joel Goldstein, “Towage” in Benedict on Admiralty, 7th ed revised, vol 8 (San Fran-

cisco: Matthew Bender, 1997) (loose-leaf release 110-12/2009 Pub 130) at 14-02.