PROFILES

Captain Terry Ogg

Sea-going
Terry Ogg served 16 years at sea from early 1974 to the end of 1989. He served his apprenticeship with T & J Harrison Line of Liverpool, sailing as deck cadet and Third Officer on general cargo vessels engaged in liner services from the UK to the West Indies, US Gulf, Central & South America, East Africa & South Africa. The vessels he sailed on were fitted with heavy lift derricks, including Stulcken derricks up to 180t SWL. He sailed with British and West Indian crews.

He joined The Indo-China Steam Navigation Co Ltd of Hong Kong (latterly Jardine Ship Management) in 1978, sailing as Second Officer and from 1980 as Chief Officer, on gantry-craned bulk carriers operated by Seaboard and Gearbulk. He obtained his British Class 1 (Master Mariner) Deck Officer’s Certificate of Competency in October 1988 and was immediately promoted to Master of bulk carriers in the 38-42,000 dwt range, before leaving Jardines at the end of 1989 to work ashore.

During his time with Jardines he carried a wide variety of bulk and neo-bulk cargoes such as cement, grains (including rice) sulphur, petroleum pitch, kaolin, petcoke, coal, fertilizers, bauxite, concentrates, timber (including timber deck cargoes), forest products, aluminium, construction modules, steel, heavy machinery, project cargoes and containers (including a container liner service). He sailed with Hong Kong Chinese and Filipino crews.

Ashore
Terry joined the London office of international law firm Clyde & Co in January 1990 as a Marine Investigator & Consultant. During 4 years in the London office he worked on “dry” disputes arising out of contracts of carriage, particularly those requiring technical or investigative input. He then spent 4 years based in the Guildford office attached to the Marine Casualty Department, where he added “wet” work experience, including salvage and collision, to his continuing dry work caseload.

In 1997 Terry transferred to Clyde’s Singapore office where he worked for 4 years. In 1998 he was promoted to Senior Marine Investigator & Consultant. He continued working a diverse marine caseload, with emphasis on wet casualties and investigations, including piracy cases.

He returned to the London office in September 2001 and has worked a mixed bag of cases, predominantly involving Hull & Machinery, P & I, cargo and marine liabilities.

Throughout his time with Clyde & Co, Terry worked with case handlers in all of Clyde & Co’s offices on a very broad range of marine cases for an equally broad client base. He has dealt with collisions, allisions, salvage, towage disputes, ship repair disputes, loss of life and personal injury claims, offhire and speed & consumption disputes, voyage planning disputes, laytime disputes, cargo loss & damage including project cargoes and contamination, cargo loading, stowage, securing and carriage disputes, structural failures, H & M policy disputes, engine room and deck machinery claims, unsafe port & berth claims, navigational errors, groundings & strandings, total losses, fires and explosions and mega-yacht cases.

He has worked for ship owners & managers, cargo owners & insurers, charterers, port & terminal operators, ship builders & repairers, P & I insurers, marine liability insurers, H & M underwriters, brokers.

He has been involved in cases in the English High Court, London, Singapore & New York arbitration, the Singapore & Hong Kong Courts and a variety of other legal jurisdictions. In 15 years with Clyde & Co he interviewed and obtained statements from almost 600 witnesses.

He left Clyde & Co in December 2004 to start up Marine Professionals.

Terry Ogg gives speaking presentations widely on a range of marine topics, averaging 8-10 each year.

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Captain John L David

Sea Going
Captain John spent 21 years at sea, with 5 of them in command.

He first went to sea in 1973 with London and Overseas Freighters Ltd. John worked his way up through the Deck officer qualifications and ranks in a broad variety of vessels, trades and cargoes until, aged 33, he was first promoted to Master and given command of a 40,000 tonne multi-flex vessel (geared bulk-cargo and container vessel).

In all, John served on large VLCC crude-oil tankers; smaller, white oil and dirty oil parcel tankers; general cargo vessels; bulk carriers; Great Lakers; and container vessels; as well as a cable recovery vessel and on smaller home - trade coaster vessels.

The cargoes he has carried include; hydrocarbons from heavy-wax crude oils to pristine aviation fuels; bulk cargoes of grain, coal, alumina, concentrates, fertilisers, copra, pulp, timber; bagged cement, rice, sugar, cocoa, and mothballs; drums of IMDG phosphorous and fibreglass resin; steel from the highest quality finished sheets for the bonnets of American Cadillac’s to the other end of the steel quality spectrum, the turnings and cuttings making up steel swarf (– which spontaneously ignited in the middle of a storm in the North Atlantic); project cargoes including very large, heavy-lift, strip-mining machinery, yachts, an entire soap factory and railway carriages.

John has visited a large number of ports around the world where he has worked with officers and crews from a variety of nationalities.

He has dealt with many problems encountered with the above cargoes, vessels and trades, including attempts at fraud, piracy and theft; allegations of shortage, contamination, loss and damage; he has had to deal with Charterers of various speed, performance, consumption, hold clean and safe port issues on behalf of his owners. He has also had to deal with death and major injury involving his crew and stevedores.

Whilst in command, John was closely involved in instigating and implementing various management systems, which have since evolved into regulatory maintenance, ISM, and ISPS systems.

John has particular experience in main and auxiliary engine operation and systems of the vessels he served on, as this was one of the areas which caused many of the day-to-day practical problems involved in operating his vessels.

After 5 years as Master, John left his last command, a Panamax bulk carrier, in Japan on a Thursday and joined a major marine London law firm on the following Monday.

Ashore

Captain John joined Clyde & Co in September 1996 as a Marine Investigator and Consultant.

In all, John spent 9 years working for Clyde’s in their London office as a litigation claims handler specialising in claims that predominantly centred around technical issues arising out of contractual disputes. These disputes included insurance policy issues, Hull and Machinery, Cargo, Ship building and sales, and liability policies; as well as carriage contracts, Bills of Lading, Charter parties, and Carriages of Afreightment.

Central to John’s involvement in these cases was his ability to sift though existing evidence, advise on further evidence and in particular, go and obtain crucial evidence. The latter has often involved trips to some of the less salubrious places in the world and interviewing witnesses who would rather not have been tracked down and interviewed.

John also has experience in fire, collision and personal injury matters, where his investigative skills have provided the client with a comprehensive overview of the issues, facts and evidence in often very difficult circumstances.

John left Clyde & Co in 2003 and spent all of 2004 providing the same investigative and advice services to clients working for Global Claims Management Ltd in the City of London.

John is also often asked to provide one-off consultancy advice on particular issues and unique projects, which have included identifying the major areas of liability/risk in a passenger port and in a LPG terminal/plant; and advise on the protection of off-shore Wind farms from a less than diligent ship’s Master.

To sum up, John investigates, advises and consults on a very broad range of Hull & Machinery, P + I, Cargo, Port Risks and other marine liability issues, involving vessels from the largest tankers through to the almost equally expensive mega-yacht claims. In the vast majority of John’s work, the terms “seaworthiness”, “due diligence”, “privity”, “proximate cause” and “negligence” have been key issues.

John has worked closely with ship owners, Charterers and their P+I insurers; Hull and Machinery underwriters, claims handlers and brokers; Port and Terminal insurers; various other marine liability insurers; and the various cargo interests.

Captain John is a frequent lecturer and presenter on a very varied spectrum of “marine-legal” topics in numerous countries and has been involved and chaired a major seminar on the Mariner and Marine Insurance.

Professional memberships: Nautical Institute – past Chairman London Branch, IFSMA, Shipwrights,

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