Photo: Wathit Kettap The Eems Solar is a leading legal authority concerning the allocation of responsibility for stowage of cargo as between owners and charterers when such responsibility has been contractually shifted from one to the other [1]. The case involves a claim for damaged steel coils wherein investigations revealed that the steel coils had shifted due to the absence of locking coils. Thus, it was sufficiently clear that bad stowage had caused the damage. The holder of the bill of lading ("BL") claimed against the owners. The charterparty was on Gencon 1994 terms, and the cargo was shipped under a Congenbill 1994 bill of lading. The Hague Rules and the charterparty were both incorporated into the bill of lading. The main issues in focus were: a) whether owners had exercised due diligence in ensuring that the vessel was seaworthy;, b) whether the owners had passed contractual responsibility for stowage onto charterers; and c) if yes, then whether such responsibility was also passed to the shippers/cargo receivers by way of incorporation into the BL, even though the charterparty only named "charterers". The claimants argued that the owners were contractually liable for the stowage of the cargo. They further argued that the loss occurred was a breach of owner's contractual duty contained in Art. III, rule 2 of The Hague Rules, namely that " ...the carrier shall properly and carefully load, handle stow, carry, keep, care for and discharge the goods carried ", and that any contractual terms purporting to shift this duty to charterers / cargo interests would be deemed "null and void" by virtue of Art III rule 8. Finally, they argued that because clause 5 referred to charterers and not the cargo interests, such a transfer of responsibility could not be incorporated into the bill of lading. The defendants argued that the vessel was seaworthy, and that they had successfully shifted their contractual responsibility for stowage to charterers and cargo interests throu