Ice Clause (Time Charter)

What it does

A time-charter ice clause governs the charterer's right to order the vessel into ice-affected areas during the charter. Because the charterer directs the ship's employment, the clause restrains it from sending her into ports or waters where ice would expose the vessel to danger, and it confirms the master's authority to refuse to proceed into or remain in unsafe ice conditions despite an employment order.

The clause works with the trading limits and employment provisions, since ice-bound regions are often among the excluded areas and the master's overriding duty to keep the ship safe applies. It addresses how time and cost are treated when ice prevents the ordered employment, and how the off-hire and safe-port considerations interact when the vessel cannot safely carry out the charterer's instructions because of ice.

Commercial effect

The clause allocates ice risk within the time charter framework, where the charterer has commercial control but the owner retains the ship. By restricting orders into dangerous ice and preserving the master's right to refuse, it protects the vessel while leaving the charterer free to employ her safely elsewhere. The treatment of time during an ice obstruction determines whether the charterer keeps paying hire when it cannot use the ship as it wished.

Because ice regions overlap with trading limits and war-style exclusions, the clause is part of the wider framework defining where the charterer may send the ship and on what terms. The consequences of an ice obstruction, for hire, for the ship's position, and for the charterer's employment plans, make the clause commercially significant in trades that touch ice-prone areas.

Owner's perspective

The owner wants firm protection against the charterer ordering the ship into dangerous ice, with the master's authority to refuse clearly preserved. It relies on the clause to keep its asset out of conditions that could trap or damage the vessel, treating ice as a danger that the charterer's commercial freedom must not override, in the same way as the safe-port and trading-limits protections.

The owner also wants the time and cost consequences sensible, so that it is not penalised for the master properly refusing to enter ice, and so that the interaction with off-hire is fair. It negotiates the ice clause alongside the trading limits and employment provisions to keep the boundary between the charterer's control and the ship's safety clear where ice is concerned.

Charterer's perspective

The charterer wants enough freedom to employ the ship in trades that may touch ice-affected areas, with a clause that restricts only genuinely dangerous ice rather than excluding viable employment unnecessarily. It is conscious that an over-cautious refusal could deprive it of a voyage it has planned, so it wants the master's discretion confined to real danger.

The charterer also focuses on the time and hire consequences when ice prevents an ordered employment, wanting the treatment to be fair given that it cannot use the ship as intended. It negotiates the ice clause together with the trading limits, employment, and off-hire provisions so that ice risk is allocated in a way that matches the trades it expects to perform.

Negotiation points

• The restriction on ordering the vessel into ice-affected areas and the master's right to refuse.
• How ice-affected regions interact with the trading limits and excluded areas.
• The treatment of time and hire when ice prevents the ordered employment.
• The threshold of ice danger that justifies the master refusing an order.

Common variations

• A clause barring orders into ice-bound ports beyond a stated danger threshold.
• An ice clause cross-referenced to the trading limits exclusions.
• A clause confirming the master's authority to refuse unsafe ice conditions.
• An ice provision addressing hire and time during an ice obstruction.