This was an appeal from the judgment of the Maritime and Commercial High Court in Remøy Viking AS v Partrederiet Ocean Tiger, S-10-08, 28 May 2010 (CMI1556).

In 2007, three trawlers, the Remøy Viking, the Ocean Tiger and the Arctic Viking, were shrimp fishing in icy waters off Eastern Greenland. One morning, the Ocean Tiger found that water was entering the light engine room due to a crack in the hull. The appellant, Remøy Viking AS, therefore lent Ocean Tiger two pumps and led a convoy out of the icy waters.

Remøy Viking later claimed a salvage reward for assisting the Ocean Tiger pursuant to the Danish Merchant Shipping Act, s 445, corresponding to the Salvage Convention 1989, art 12, according to which salvage operations with useful results give the right to a reward.

Held: By reference to the report on the Danish Merchant Shipping Act, s 411(a), corresponding with the Salvage Convention 1989, art 1.a, the Supreme Court found that it is a condition for salvage that the vessel has been in danger of being broken or considerably damaged and that the vessel must have been unable to save itself.

Based on the evidence of the case, the Court found that Ocean Tiger had the necessary pumping capacity to deal with the entering water and that the crew on board had the situation under control. Furthermore, according to the expert opinion, the crack in the hull had no influence on the strength of the trawler, and the entering water had not considerably affected or hampered the stability and manoeuvrability of the trawler.

Under these circumstances the Court found that it was not proven that Ocean Tiger had been unable to save itself. The assistance offered by Remøy Viking AS could therefore not be characterised as a salvage operation within the scope of the Danish Merchant Shipping Act, s 445, and as a consequence Remøy Viking had no right to a salvage reward.