Ewan Porthouse

Admiralty Manager

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Ewan is a Master Mariner with a 25 year career in the shipping industry. Prior to joining Stann, Ewan worked as a Marine Manager for a leading London law firm.

Ewan spent over 12 years at sea on both deep sea and offshore vessels. He has valuable experience working on behalf of Owners in a senior management position, in which role he was responsible for the day-to-day operation and safety management of a fleet of vessels as well as providing technical and commercial advice.

Ewan harnesses this background to provide a comprehensive service for clients, regularly travelling to challenging jurisdictions to conduct investigations on all vessel types. He has a commercially minded approach to investigations, searching for innovative solutions to complex problems.

Ewan handles cases long after the initial investigation phase is over, and particularly takes the lead on claims involving damage to port infrastructure. He has managed the full spectrum of complex Admiralty cases including collisions, fires, groundings, cargo/bunker contamination, and capsizing incidents. He regularly defends commercial claims and achieves significant cost savings and recoveries for clients.

Ewan is confident making decisions in challenging circumstances, with an established track record of protecting clients’ interests from the earliest stages of an investigation.

Ewan's Career Highlights

Emergency Response PlusMinus

Ewan’s experience handling emergency incidents:

  • Capsize of a laden bulk carrier off the West Coast of India and associated salvage and pollution response efforts.

  • Engine room fire on a seismic survey vessel off West Africa and the associated salvage response.

  • Fire onboard offshore support vessel in a North European shipyard.

  • Four-vessel collision in Bremerhaven, Germany.

  • Vessel collisions in Tema, Ghana, and Bejaia, Algeria.

  • Grounding and salvage response of a bulk carrier in the river Parana, Argentina.

  • Explosion at Tilbury Grain Terminal, UK.

  • Salvage and CTL off Gibraltar.

Dispute Resolution PlusMinus

Ewan has the following experience in dispute resolution:

  • Wilforce c/w Western Moscow [2022] EWHC 1190 (Admlty).

  • FMG Hong Kong Shipping Limited, The Demise Charterers of FMG Sydney v The Owners of MSC Apollo [2023] EWHC 328 (Admlty).

  • Coordination and management of various oversees jurisdiction litigation and court cases.

  • US and UK mediations for wash damage cases.

Investigations PlusMinus

Ewan has investigated the following matters:

  • Grounding of the Ever Given in the Suez Canal.

  • Collision and sinking of a vessel off Vietnam.

  • Cargo fire onboard bulk carrier in Egypt.

  • SBM/bow loading system pollution incident offshore Norway.

  • Restricted visibility collision in the Gulf of Finland.

  • Main engine failure and salvage off Turkey.

  • Numerous allisions and port infrastructure damage cases in Spain, Canada, Costa Rica and Dominican Republic.

  • LOF salvage off New South Wales, Australia.

  • Fire in engine room and tug assistance off Yemen.

  • Fire in engine room and LOF salvage off Portugal.

  • Collision, LOF salvage and wreck hire assistance in the Gulf of Kutch, India.

  • Grounding of a port gantry crane carrier in heavy weather off Rotterdam.

  • Numerous collisions in the Singapore Straits and heavily congested Chinese waters.

  • Assist shipowner with ISM related issues and criminal charges.

  • Cargo contamination in the UAE.

Advisory PlusMinus

Ewan’s advisory and transactional work:

  • Advising on the sale and purchase of offshore support vessels.

  • Negotiation of fleet wide communications systems contracts.

  • Negotiation and implementation of new vessel equipment outfitting and vessel upgrade contracts – Dynamic Positioning Systems and wire/anchor handling outfitting.

  • Advising the Commercial department of an offshore vessel owner in the drafting of bespoke charter party terms.

  • Drafting of ‘Bridging documents’ to integrate Safety Management Systems for offshore support vessels on charter.

  • Tendering for sale of a damaged bulk carrier vessel on an “as is where is” basis in India.

  • Negotiation of commercial towage contracts.

Consulting and Projects PlusMinus

Ewan has advised on the following:

  • Lead the implementation and manage the continuous development and improvement of company SMS and ISPS management systems.

  • Plan and manage in-house company tow from South Africa to Greece.

  • Plan and manage numerous vessel lay-ups (cold and warm) and the reactivation to commercial operations.

  • Reactivate offshore support vessel (DSV Toisa Pegasus) from cold lay up for charter to support the deployment and recovery testing of a subsea well capping system offshore Croatia. Project led by a consortium of oil majors for ORSL.

  • Role of DPA and senior operational management of a diverse fleet of offshore support vessels.

  • SMS and environmental compliance auditing.

  • Support shipowner with vessel compliance matters in Oman.

  • Plan and manage various vessel mobilisations and conversions for commercial charter.

  • Plan and undertake port suitability surveys in the UK, Indonesia, Congo, and Colombia.

  • Various safety and security ‘walk-through’ assessments for new operational ports in difficult jurisdictions.

  • Work with Oil Major on a feasibility study for a new offshore support base and vessel scheduling.

  • Plan and manage the winterisation of a DSV in a Canadian port, including the installation of additional subsea mooring points.