DISPATCH MONEY

dispatch  money.Maritime law. An amount paid by a shipowner to a  vessel’s charterer if the

vessel’s  cargo  is  unloaded  at  the  port  sooner  than  provided  for  in  the  agreement  between  the

charterer   and   the   shipowner.   —   Also   termed   dispatch.   Cf.   contract   demurrage   under

DEMURRAGE. [Cases: Shipping    49(6). C.J.S. Shipping § 108.]

“Some charters contain a provision for ‘dispatch money,’ which is in the nature of a reward to

the charterer for loading or unloading more rapidly than provided for — i.e., in less time than the

stipulated ‘lay days.’ Dispatch, where payable, is usually stated, just as is demurrage, in terms of a

rate  per  day  and  pro  rata  part  thereof.”  Grant  Gilmore  &  Charles  L.  Black  Jr.,  The  Law  of

Admiralty § 4–8, at 212 (2d ed. 1975). [Blacks Law 8th]