Calendar month. A vessel may be fixed on a time charter basis, either for the period occupied by a certain voyage; e.g., “for one voyage from the UK and/or Continent to Australia via port or ports in charterers’ option” or for the term of “. . . calendar months, commencing from time of delivery at . . .” the port agreed upon.
Calendar months mean, of course, the months according to the calendar, e.g., if a vessel, taken on time charter for say six months, has been delivered on 10 June, the charter expires on 10 December. A special clause lays down the rate of hire, which the charterers shall pay for the vessel per calendar month. Such a clause may read:
“The charterers to pay hire at the rate of . . . Dollars (US currency) per ton on vessel’s deadweight on summer freeboard per calendar month, commencing in accordance with clause 1 until her redelivery to the owners. Payment of hire has to be made in cash in London, without discount, every calendar month in advance.”
In the absence of any clause defining the meaning of “calendar month”, hire can be calculated on the duration of the month concerned and a day’s hire can be calculated by reference to the number of days in the calendar month in which the break occurs.
“Calendar month” can thus refer to both the period of hire and the method of hire payment. In some charterparties “calendar month” and “thirty days” are found far each of these applications of the phrase: For example, in the BALTIME 1939 charterparty, cl. 1 states that the “. . . Charterers hire the vessel for a period of . . . calendar months from the time (. . . ) the vessel is delivered . . .”. Clause 6 states that the “…Charterers to pay as hire: . . per 30 days, commencing in accordance with Clause 1 until her redelivery to the Owners . . .”.
Some charterers may insist on having the second clause amended to payment “per calendar month”, perhaps because this suits their method of accounting or paying hire.
It may sometimes be expressed in charterparties, which provide for payment of hire per calendar month and pro-rata for part of a calendar month, that a day’s hire shall be calculated on the basis of onethirtieth of a month’s hire of the vessel. In ‘ the absence of such an additional clause, any day’s hire due should be in relation. to the number of days in the calendar month, in which the broken period actually occurs.
