2 A preliminary description of the sub-carrier
The definition of a sub-carrier in MC Section 251 must be read in light of the definition of a carrier in the same Section: the carrier is someone “who enters into a contract with a sender(1) The sender is correspondingly defined as «the person who enters into a contract with a carrier for the carriage of general cargo by sea”. General cargo (Norw.: stykkgods) is not defined in the MC. In the previous code - MC 1893 as amended in 1973 - the concept was indirectly defined in Section 71 paragraph three: “Voyage chartering may be for the whole or a part of the vessel or for general cargo. It is part chartering where the agreement encompasses less than the whole vessel or a complete cargo and charter party is used”. In other words, the nature of the cargo is not decisive; the categorisation depends upon the actual transport agreement. for the carriage of general cargo by sea” - in order to avoid mistakes, we often call this person the contracting carrier. A sub-carrier is defined as “the person who, pursuant to an assignment by the carrier, performs the carriage or part of it”.