Can a ship be arrested? Inside the world of maritime law

Can you really arrest a ship? And what happens if the ship simply sails away?

The maritime world is full of surprising stories — and this month, Full Ahead explores one of the most unexpected: maritime law.

Alistair and Nigel are in Liverpool, where they meet Ruth Wood, Chief Executive of Mersey Maritime, ahead of the organisation's annual awards. It's much more than a celebration: the event brings together the huge variety of people and businesses that make up Merseyside's maritime community.

Ruth explains what Mersey Maritime does, why bringing the industry together matters and what first attracted her to the maritime world.

Then we step into the fascinating world of maritime law with Colin Lavelle, a partner at Hill Dickinson in Liverpool.

Colin reveals what it's really like to be a maritime lawyer and the extraordinary range of problems that can cross his desk — including the circumstances in which ships can actually be arrested.

We also discover Hill Dickinson's historic connections with the great transatlantic liners and the White Star Line, including the remarkable story of one of the firm's founding lawyers who narrowly avoided being aboard an ill-fated voyage.

And there's plenty more: why maritime law is such a varied career, what it's like dealing with several ships at once, how you become a maritime lawyer, and why the Titanic continues to have a connection with the legal world more than a century later.

01:00 Welcome to Liverpool
03:00 Meet Ruth Wood, CEO of Mersey Maritime
08:00 How to get involved in Mersey Maritime
12:00 Meet Colin Lavelle of Hill Dickinson
14:00 Hill Dickinson and the White Star Line
16:00 How Colin became a maritime lawyer
17:40 What makes maritime law so appealing?
18:00 The extraordinary range of cases maritime lawyers handle
21:00 A result!
22:00 Why maritime law can be like Thunderbirds
28:00 How do you become a maritime lawyer?
29:00 Can you arrest multiple ships?
30:00 Why the Titanic still prompts legal work

Our thanks to Ruth Wood and Colin Lavelle for joining Full Ahead.

Full Ahead brings you the people, places and unexpected stories behind the maritime world.

And next time, we're heading to Europe...

If you're enjoying the podcast, follow Full Ahead on Spotify, share the episode and let us know what maritime mystery you'd like us to investigate next.

In this episode