Definition
A contract of affreightment is an agreement with a shipowner to hire a vessel, or part of a vessel, for the carriage of goods. The contract may cover a specific voyage or a period of time, and it defines the terms under which cargo will be transported in exchange for a stipulated price called freight. In practice, a contract of affreightment takes one of two principal forms: a charter-party, in which the charterer takes the whole or a substantial part of the ship, or a bill of lading, in which the shipper books space aboard a vessel already engaged in general trade. Both instruments are species of the same genus, but they carry different legal consequences for the parties.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "The act of hiring, or the contract for use of, a vessel, or some part of it, to convey cargo."
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "The act of hiring, or the contract for the use of, a vessel, or some part of it, to convey cargo."
The common and legal definitions track each other closely here, which is unusual. The gap that matters to a researcher is not definitional but structural: ordinary usage treats affreightment as a single act or transaction, while maritime law treats it as a genus of contracts with meaningfully distinct subtypes — the charter-party and the bill of lading — each governed by its own body of rules and remedies. Understanding that the word is an umbrella category, not a single instrument, is essential to accurate research.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Charter-party: A formal written contract in which a shipowner lets the entire vessel, or a defined part of it, to a charterer for a voyage or a period. The charterer typically assumes substantial control over cargo operations. See CHARTER-PARTY.
Bill of lading: A contract between a shipper and a carrier for the transportation of specific goods aboard a vessel operating a general trade route. The shipowner retains control of the vessel. The bill of lading simultaneously functions as a receipt for goods and a document of title. See BILL OF LADING.
Why It Matters in Research
Affreightment is a category term, and researchers who treat it as synonymous with either charter-party or bill of lading will misread sources. Historical cases and treatises may use "contract of affreightment" where a modern reader would expect to see one of those specific instruments named. The term is also a reliable index entry in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century maritime law materials; following it into the cross-references — particularly to FREIGHT and CHARTER-PARTY — opens the primary doctrinal architecture of Anglo-American shipping law.
Jurisdictional variation in this area runs less between American states than between national legal systems. French maritime law, referenced in several historical dictionaries under the term affrètement, developed parallel doctrine with different terminology, and researchers working in admiralty cases involving French-flagged vessels or French ports will encounter this parallel vocabulary. English treatises cited throughout the historical dictionaries — particularly Maude & Pollock on Merchant Shipping and Smith's Mercantile Law — remained standard American references well into the federal admiralty period and are worth consulting directly when historical sources cite them without quotation.
The corpus connection between affreightment and general admiralty jurisdiction is significant. Federal admiralty courts historically exercised jurisdiction over contracts of affreightment regardless of whether the parties were domestic or foreign, making federal reporter databases the primary source for American case law on this term rather than state court reports.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries agree on the core definition without meaningful divergence: affreightment is the hiring of a vessel for cargo carriage. Burrill offers the most precise formulation, specifying "a certain voyage, at a stipulated price or freight," which captures the commercial specificity the term carries in practice. Rapalje & Lawrence and both editions of Black's align on the two recognized forms — charter-party and bill of lading — citing Maude & Pollock and Smith's Mercantile Law as the standard treatise authority. Bouvier is terse, redirecting to FREIGHT and GENERAL SHIP. Anderson contributes nothing independent, cross-referencing only.
What the historical dictionaries underemphasize is the distinction in legal consequence between the two subtypes. A researcher reading only these entries might conclude that charter-party and bill of lading are interchangeable instruments under the affreightment umbrella; the treatise literature they cite makes clear they are not. Burrill's note on French law (affrètement, nolissement) is a useful flag for comparative research but is not developed in any of the sources.
Jurisdictional Note
Contracts of affreightment fall primarily within federal admiralty jurisdiction in the United States, so state law variations are rarely determinative. International differences — particularly between English, French, and civil law maritime traditions — are more likely to affect research than interstate variation.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Admiralty and Maritime Law; Charter-Party; Bills of Lading