5. On being so loaded, the vessel shall proceed to Tema, Ghana as ordered by Charterers, and deliver the cargo, according to Bills of Lading at one / two always accessible safe discharging berths in Charterers’ option, vessel being always afloat on having been paid freight as per Clauses 8 and 9.

TO: MESSRS FATIMA BIBI & CO

COPY: MESSRS GOLDEN GAIN AGENCY (as agents only)

DEAR SIRS:

THIS IS TO ADVISE YOU THAT THE ABOVE VESSEL UNDER MY COMMAND ARRIVED AT THE PORT OF TEMA, GHANA AT 1115 HOURS LOCAL TIME TODAY, 3^RD MAY 2000, AND IS IN ALL RESPECTS READY TO COMMENCE DISCHARGING ABOUT 17,634 METRIC TONS OF CANADIAN WHEAT IN BULK ALL IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE CHARTER PARTY DATED 22 MARCH 2000 AT MONTREAL.

THIS IS A WRITTEN CONFIRMATION OF NOTICE OF READINESS TRANSMITTED TO YOU BY RADIO AT 1115 HOURS TODAY, RECEIPT OF WHICH YOU HAVE ACKNOWLEDGED.

YOURS FAITHFULLY,

NOTICE OF READINESS ACCEPTED TODAY, 3 MAY 2000, AT 1115 HOURS, BUT ALWAYS SUBJECT TO PROOF THAT VESSEL IS IN EVERY WAY READY AND FIT FOR DISCHARGE AS PER C/P

FATIMA BIBI & CO

Managing Director

m.v. LUCKY CHARM Discharging 17,634 MT Canadian Wheat at

________________________________________________________________

Arrived/anchored 1115 hours 3 May, 2000

Notice of Readiness tendered 1115 hours 3 May, 2000

Berth available 1610 hours 8 May, 2000

Weighed anchor 1630 hours 8 May, 2000

Berthed Tin Pot Wharf 1830 hours 8 May, 2000

Free Patique granted 1920 hours 8 May, 2000

Commenced discharge 0915 hours 10 May, 2000

Completed discharge 0940 hours 27 May, 2000

Departed berth 1150 hours 27 May, 2000

______________________________________________________________________________________

Tema, 27 May 2000

m.v. "LUCKY CHARM"

Discharge at Tema

Time allowed: 17,634 metric tons = 10.076571 days = 10 days 1 hour 50 minutes

1,750 metric tons / day

Demurrage (due Owners): 8.295139 days @ $7,500 / day = $62,213.54

m.v. "LUCKY CHARM"

Discharge at Tema

Time allowed: 17,634 / 1,750 = 10.076571 days

Adjust for 3 / 5 vacuvators available for discharge: 10.076571 x 5/3 = 16.794286 days

Adjusted laytime allowed = 16 days 19 hours 1 minute

Less laytime actually used 8 days 16 hours 55 minutes

Despatch (due Charterers): 8.0875 days @ $3,750 = $30,328.13

m.v. "LUCKY CHARM"

Discharge at Tema

Laytime saved: 3 days 23 hours 53 minutes

Captain Alessandro Tullio Buonamente di Giancometti will swear and state as follows:

1. My name is Alessandro Tullio Giancometti of 103, Via Ponchielli, Naples, Italy.

My age is 42 years. I first obtained my Master’s foreign-going licence in 1985.

2. I have been one of two Masters allocated to the "LUCKY CHARM" since my owners purchased the vessel in 1997. At the time of the Atlantic Grain Factors voyage, I had been on board as Master for about 4 months.
3. I first learned of the charter to Atlantic Grain Factors through a telephone conversation with Captain Rasselas from my owners’ office in Greece at the end of March 2000. At that stage, the actual C/P had not been written up, and the owners sent me a copy of the recapitulation message from the brokers together with an older charter on which the charter party was to be based.
4. At that time, my vessel was proceeding up the east coast of the USA in ballast. The owners told me to proceed directly to Quebec City to load a cargo of grain for discharge in West Africa. I later learned that the discharge port was to be Tema in Ghana. I was given instruction to send regular ETA notices to Receivers, Fatima Bibi & Co.
5. The loading of the vessel went well and without any problems. We sailed for West Africa on 15 April. During the voyage, we lost some time due to breakdown of the main engine; but once that was fixed, we made up a day or two, and arrived off Tema on 3 May. All ETA’s were sent in good time to Receivers.
6. At that time, the berth was occupied by another ship, the "FIDELIO" as the agent later told me. On the morning of 8^th May (Monday), the agent told me that she would leave later that day, and we must be ready to come into berth. This was done, and the pilot was ordered for around 4 o’clock in the afternoon. He boarded in time, and we proceeded straight away to the harbour.
7. My ship was all fast alongside at 6.30 p.m., and free pratique was granted about an hour later. But we could not commence discharge because we had on board no vacuvators, which are old-fashioned machines for sucking the grain cargo out of the holds. This was very upsetting for me, because it was my job to get these machines for the owners.
8. On the passage across the Atlantic, Captain Rasselas had told me that we would need to rent these vacuvators locally at Tema, and I was to arrange this through the agent. This was the Charterers’ agent, named Golden Gain Agency, with head office in Takoradi and branch office in Tema.
9. I had contacted this agent by telephone when passing the Azores and told him he must obtain 5 vacuvator machines to put on board as soon as we arrive at Tema. He said he would do this, and informed me that all vacuvators are to be rented from one supplier, name of Abu Hassan Bibi. I ask him if this company related to Receivers, and he tells me: Yes and No: they share the same office, and managing director of Receivers is brother of general manager of vacuvator supplier (same father, different mothers). But each business keeps separate bank accounts. Brothers good friends, he says, but fight often.
10. When we anchored at Tema, I ask the agent (whose name was Mr Coriolanus Smith): where are my vacuvators? He tells me that they are being used by the FIDELIO, but will soon be available for LUCKY CHARM, as soon as we berth in its place. So I ask him: whose cargo is on FIDELIO? And he says Fatima Bibi’s, same as us. Everyday we waited at anchor he tells me the same thing: vacuvators ready on arrival in berth.
11. When we get to the berth on the evening of 8 May, no vacuvators are provided. Mr Smith, the agent, tells me he does not know why; but this is Tema, and he will diligently investigate first thing tomorrow.
12. The next morning, I heard the same story, so I told the agent to fetch the head man of the vacuvator company to tell me in person exactly what is going on. This gentleman was a very large person who smiled a lot, with a bright green shiny shirt and many gold chains about his neck and wrists and rings on every finger. He tells me I must not worry, as these things always happen in that place. The Receivers will understand, of course, and know the problem very well, which is for routine maintenance of his machines; and he, Abu Hassan Bibi himself, will see that everything is ready for tomorrow early to start the work on the ship.
13. I reminded him that we must have 5 units immediately. This was what I had ordered, and he had confirmed his acceptance to the agent. He nodded his agreement to this, but then replied that, to be perfectly frank and honest, the Receiver had told him only 3 were needed, and so that was all that he had held for us in his shed. But he would speak to the Receivers and make everything all right for us, adding all sorts of nonsense about good business relations etc etc.
14. At his request, I gave this Mr (Vacuvator) Bibi six of my best Cuban cigars, several cartons of cigarettes plus 8 bottles of whisky, and then he left. I asked the agent what was really going on, and he told me that there was serious trouble in the town with food shortage and also not enough trucks in the port because of vandalism and national shortage of gasoline. He said he had heard a rumour that in fact the Receivers could not obtain any trucks at all for LUCKY CHARM’s cargo until the next morning.
15. The next day, Mr (Vacuvator) Bibi came back on board, very pleased with himself, to tell me he had three first-rate vacuvators in his truck (he called it a "lorry") on the quay, all ready to start work. As soon as I would pay him a small deposit of $20,000 (US), everything will begin.
16. I asked him where were the other two machines I had ordered. He looked less pleased, and said that they were still in his shop for overhaul. But I should not worry so much, as the Receivers really only wanted enough cargo each day for the lorries to load. If I really understood this situation, I and my no doubt lovely wife would have very good reason to appreciate their good old-fashioned un-neo-colonial approach to the business.
17. When I asked him to explain exactly what he meant by this, he got very angry and told me I must mind my own business. He would look after the vacuvators, and I must look after my ship and the cargo. That was the proper way of working at Tema, and I must be more careful with my slanderous accusations.
18. The three vacuvators supplied were in fact in quite good condition, and the discharging of the cargo went well. According to my calculations, we were able to discharge the wheat at a rate of about 100 tons per working hour, which was quite good, especially as the charter party laytime rate was only about 75 tons.
19. I did not believe Mr (Vacuvator) Bibi, and was convinced that he was simply operating under instruction of his brother, the other Mr Bibi (Receiver). Everything the agent told me in his long stay on board confirmed my suspicions: here was a clear set-up, designed to blackmail honest foreign shipowners.
20. The next day, I had another visit from Mr (Vacuvator) Bibi. He had come, so he said, to correct any unfortunate misunderstanding caused during yesterday’s conversation. He could tell immediately that I was an honest captain, and I must have known that he was under much personal stress. In fact, to be perfectly frank and honest, he had quarreled with his brother and his sons about the extra two vacuvators; but facts were facts; and they were all in pieces on the floor of his shed. Meanwhile, his chief fitter had that very morning absconded up-country with the petty cash box and certain essential tools, and so there was not much he could do to help me.
21. Perhaps, he suggested, I should contact my owners, explain to them very clearly how matters now stood, and suggest to them that a P&I guarantee or letter of credit for $100,000 might help. Very soon, he happened to know, the Receivers would visit me with a claim for shortage or damage to the cargo; and it would be a great pity if the ship was to be delayed on that account.
22. I pointed out to him that, as the discharge had only just begun, any shortage claim might be a little premature, and as for wetting of the cargo, the hatch survey had shown no evidence of sea-water ingress or sweat. He then flew into a great rage and said I was a foolish man who did not comprehend any part of the business: he would complain to my owners about me. I invited him to do just that, which did not improve his temper at all.
23. After long exchanges of this sort, Mr Bibi left the ship and said he would bring his brother, the Receiver, to explain matters to me more clearly. Meanwhile, I could absolutely trust him: the missing two vacuvators would be on board in time to assist with the discharge, and all would be well – provided I listened carefully to his brother.
24. Mr Receiver – by name Diogenes Laertes Bibi - arrived late the following evening, and invited me to open a nice new bottle of my best bonded whisky. He apologised at great length for his brother, a paltry vacuvator salesman, he called him, a fickle fabricator of fantastic fairy-tales. A low, common sort of person, he added: even his mother was ashamed of him. Unfortunately, such riff-raff was all one could expect today in such a pathetic, woe-begotten, flea-bitten outpost of the dark continent (his words).
25. This Mr D.L. Bibi was quite unlike his brother, being rather small and wearing a black tie and bowler hat, gold-rimmed spectacles on a gold chain round his neck and many gold fillings in rather protruding teeth. He spoke very quickly and abruptly, and punctuated his remarks with flourishes of his bamboo cane, which had many gold bands on the handle. He confided that he just happened to know that our missing two vacuvators were at that very moment being charged out to two other vessels in the port, although they were in fact lying in pieces on the mud floor of his brother’s fire-trap of a shed. He himself had seen to it that my owners were not being charged as well, because he could tell that we were honest businessmen who understood very well which end of the bottle to pour out of. (He clearly understood this also, I realised, as I watched him rapidly depleting my best single malt.)
26. As he left the vessel still brandishing his cane ( I had to arrange for a cargo sling to be attached to the storing crane so that he might safely reach the quay), Mr Diogenes Bibi assured me that all would undoubtedly turn out for the best: there would soon be a wonderful abundance of lorries and then I would hardly believe my eyes as I beheld how magnificently all five vacuvators would discharge my owners’ beautiful ship.
27. Every day after that, I complained to the agent, to the Receivers and to the vacuvator supplier; but nothing changed. The three vacuvator machines continued to achieve a very fair production, and a new truck always seemed to roll onto the quay just in time to avoid any delays. This went on until the food riots in the town and the port strike, which started on the next Friday.
28. After the strike ended on the Friday after that (26^th May), we resumed our operation in much the same way until the morning of the 27^th, when discharge was almost complete. Then, at about 0800, the two Bibi bothers clambered up the gangway and arrived unannounced on the bridge. Mr Abu Hassan was very out of breath from his exertions; but his brother eagerly pressed me to partake breakfast with them in my cabin. I reluctantly agreed, and arranged for the meal.
29. They did not waste time in pleasantries. The two missing vacuvators were on the quay, and could absolutely be placed on board not less than 5 minutes prior to completion of discharge. If only I would give them some appropriate sign of appreciation, Mr Bibi (Receiver) would sign a certificate to confirm that there had indeed been "5 vacuvators on board during discharge", and so my owners could easily claim demurrage from the Charterers. (By "appropriate", it turned out that they meant a sum of not less than $25,000 US in $100 bills.)
30. I told them that this was out of the question, and that, if my vessel was detained in any way, I would go straight to the court and expose their silly scheme. They then became very angry with me (and with one another also) and left in great haste without touching their poached eggs, the large fat one tripping and falling off the gangway about two thirds of the way down: fortunately, the angle was not too great and he landed on his brother, so he was not seriously hurt, otherwise no doubt he would have sued us.
31. I did not see either of these gentlemen again. We completed discharge at 0940 that morning, and sailed without further incident or interference. The pilot told me that this sort of thing happens quite often: there is even a special word for it in the local dialect.
32. We never did receive the two missing vacuvators. But Captain Rasselas told me later in the office that the agent had tried to charge us for them anyway.

Naples, 21 April, 2001