Henry Ashwell

Henry has experience of a wide variety of disputes in the shipping sector, both wet and dry. He is regularly instructed as sole counsel in international arbitrations and the High Court.

Notable recent instructions include:

• Junior counsel in multi-million-pound consolidated Commercial Court shipping claims concerning alleged sanctions breaches;
• Advised on jurisdictional issues relating to a superyacht dispute;
• Sole counsel in an arbitration concerning unclean holds on redelivery of a vessel and issues of off-hire relating to suspected cases of Covid-19;
• Sole counsel in an arbitration relating to the costs of repairs due to alleged stevedore damage to a vessel’s holds during loading of a bulk cargo of scrap;
• Sole counsel in an arbitration relating to the operation of the CONWARTIME 2013 clause in a time charter as a result of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia;
• Advised on the incidence of deadfreight under a one trip time charter for the transportation of grain in bulk;
• Sole counsel in an arbitration over the costs of repairing stevedore damage on discharge of scrap cargo and the removal of residue cargo under a trip time charter;
• Sole counsel in a dispute which proceeded to mediation arising over delays resulting from crew members testing positive for Covid-19, raising issues over safe port warranties, owners’ indemnity for complying with charterers’ orders and clauses providing for crew illness;
• Sole counsel in a dispute over the costs associated with a vessel arriving with unclean holds at its load port and the application of off-hire provisions in a time charter;
• Sole counsel in a multi-party arbitration concerning costs associated with delays due to a vessel grounding after loading;
• Acting as sole counsel in a collision claim in the Admiralty Court, including a claim for loss of profits associated with repairs to the vessel;
• Acting as sole counsel for a group of defendants in a large-scale limitation action;
• Instructed as sole counsel in an arbitration concerning the operation of clauses in a time charter relating to rates of hire dependent upon a vessel’s transit of the Panama Canal.