8. Obligation of Owner.—
The owner is bound to provide a seaworthy ship. While the maritime law, in order to encourage investments of capital, endeavors to provide certain limitations of liability, the obligation of seaworthiness is supreme up to, at least, the amount invested in the ship. Subject only to a possible limitation of liability, the owner is absolutely bound to furnish and maintain a seaworthy ship; this obligation is analogous to that of an employer on land to furnish a safe place for his employees or of a carrier to furnish safe and roadworthy means of transport.
Seaworthiness is a relative term. The ship must be fit in design, structure, condition and equipment to encounter the ordinary perils of the voyage. She must have a competent master and a sufficient crew. Absolute perfection, of course, is not required; the real test is that the ship shall have that degree of fitness which the ordinary careful and prudent owner requires of his vessel at the commencement of the voyage in view of all the circumstances which may attend it.
The law does not insist that the shipowner shall in person attend to all his duties in respect of the ship. It recognizes that most of these must be met by agents. It contemplates that shipowners may avail themselves of the facilities common to business men and be relieved whenever they have properly employed competent agents to supervise the ship at sea and in port. In most instances where the maritime law may be applied the owner will not be responsible beyond his interest in the ship, for the acts or omissions of agents whom he has selected with due care.