Master Mariners

Amarinder Singh Brar

Amarinder apprenticed with a nationalised shipping company on general cargo vessels, product tankers and crude oil tankers. Most of his seagoing experience is with a leading shipmanager operating and commanding vessels for reputed container lines. He roped off his seagoing career with a brief stint with the largest non-vessel operating owner of container ships. He has first-hand ‘experience’ in shipping incidents such as minor fire, grounding, collision, heavy weather damage, deviation, cargo loss, oil spill, detention, IMDG leaks, reefer claims, propulsion machinery failure, fuel oil non-compliance, dead-ship condition in a tropical storm, serious crew injuries and medical evacuation at sea by helicopter.

In 2013, he obtained a PG Diploma in Marine Insurance while sailing. In 2015, he received a Master’s in Maritime Law with Merit.

From 2016 to 2018, Amarinder served as a Nautical Surveyor and Port State Control Officer inspecting and surveying all kinds of vessels for (then) Her Majesty’s government and ParisMoU. He also examined candidates and audited training providers for all grades of nautical examinations including Master Mariners. In this role, he has surveyed and certified ships ranging from small harbour tugs to specialised vessels such as dredgers, offshore support vessels, cross-channel ferries to large oceangoing passenger liners.

From 2019 to 2021, Amarinder worked for a reputed consultant firm in London providing services to insurers and law firms. There he gained experience in the ‘usual’ shipping disputes such as collisions, groundings, CP disputes cargo claims, H&M claims, marine warranty surveys, flag state inspections for Transport Malta, ISM/ISPS/MLC surveys et al. He was also involved in some unusual work such as a risk survey for a port in the Middle East ordered by London-based reinsurers, consultancy in flagging-in, transportation and flag state compliance for FPSO built under an EPCIC contract for an oil major by a French conglomerate, providing central QA control of FPSOs and FSRUs being built and installed in south-east Asia and the Mediterranean, and investigating the death of an American national on a Nile cruise for the vessel’s insurers.

Amarinder joined MFB in late 2021.  While primarily being a wet-shipping professional for collisions, groundings, allisions and salvage matters, Amarinder also works with dry shipping disputes ranging from safe port issues, deviation at sea, bunker issues, piracy, attacks by state actors, regulatory fines, BL disputes, cargo claims etc. He regularly attends shipping casualties for investigation, evidence collection and witness statements. He assists with the review of evidence, legal research, and liability assessment in collision cases as well.

In the last 3 years with MFB, Amarinder has been involved with over 330 shipping disputes. 44% of these appointments came from IGP&I Clubs. The matter type breakdown is 24% Admiralty, 72% CP Disputes, and the rest as Insurance law or Regulatory Compliance matters. 13% of matters relate to container ships, 67% relate to bulk carriers and the rest to oil tankers, ro-pax, LNG carriers, survey vessels, yachts, heavy lifts, reefer ships and other specialised vessels.

Key cases worked on include container loss from the ONE APUS in December 2020 and the EVER GIVEN incident of March 2021.

Amarinder brings his wealth of operational, regulatory, practical and shipping knowledge spanning nearly 30 years to the MFB Casualty Team. He is currently working towards qualifying as a Solicitor.

Peter Harris

Peter is a qualified master mariner, who has been working in the shipping industry for fifty years of which eighteen years were sailing deep sea and working in the offshore industries.  He spend four years in commend positions.   His seagoing experience encompasses general cargo, reefer, RoRo Container, diving support, anchor handlers and supply vessels.  Offshore he has experience as tow master, rig moving and heavy lifts / jacket construction. 

He came ashore in the early 90’s to work as a casualty investigator for a major London law firm, where he qualified as a solicitor.  He spent three years as a Senior Claims Director at an IG P&I Club before joining MFB in 2012.  At the P&I Club he had a coordinating and reporting role in liquefaction issues, working with and representing the International Group. 

As a solicitor he has worked primarily in admiralty law, investigating and litigating numerous collisions, acting for both salvors and salved interests in various complex salvages as well as the smaller door step towage and groundings, acting for both owners and charterers in unsafe port cases, acting for owners and their P&I in major pollution incidents, acting for owners in total losses, being involved in criminal investigations and prosecutions and acting for yacht owners in total losses and building quality issues.  Notable cases in which he has been involved include:  HERALD OF FREE ENTERPRISE defending the senior master in criminal prosecution, NAKHODKA, multi-jurisdictional total loss and significant pollution involving both CLC and Funds conventions, LIMBURG salvage of tanker following terrorist attack, HYUNDAI FORTUNE salvage as a result of container fire, AMSTERDAM BRIDGE salvage as a result of container fire and APL AUSTRIA another major container fire. 

 He has also been a part time lecturer at the University of Plymouth teaching maritime law.

Jaikar Sohal

Capt. Jaikar is a qualified and experienced master mariner with more than 19 years seagoing experience onboard various types of merchant ships, largely crude oil tankers. Jaikar started his maritime career in 1996 as a Trainee Nautical Officer with the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) where he gained experience onboard general cargo, bulk carrier, and oil tanker. Later he joined Wallem Ship Management in 2000 and moved through various ranks onboard oil tankers before getting his command in 2011. He has a command experience of around 5 years onboard crude oil tankers including Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs). He has extensive experience of ship handling (very large vessels), ship-to-ship transfer (STS) operations, SBM/SPM and other oil tanker operations, crew management, safety management, risk management, various kind of ship inspections, surveys, and audits.

In 2016, Jaikar made his career transition to shore as trainer and lecturer working for Centre of Maritime Science and Ocean Studies (CMOS), University of Trinidad till 2019 and Tobago and then with Warsash Maritime School, Solent University. He is a qualified simulation trainer and had been in-charge of various competency and professional development courses. He has overseen various simulation-based port development projects, test runs for various kind of ship, pilot training, ship prototype testing etc. As a strategic lead for research and knowledge exchange, he has been instrumental in setting up Warsash MASS research centre (WMRC) and its four research groups. As a researcher, he has contributed to draft bids for various research projects and carried out research in few autonomous ship projects like Intelligent Ship Centre (IGNITE). He holds a fellowship of Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and has published articles and book chapters in industry related publications.

Jaikar holds a LLM in International Trade and Maritime Law from Solent University and Diploma in marine surveying from Lloyds Maritime Academy. He is a qualified ISO and ISM internal auditor (ISO9001.14001, OHSAS 18001). He is an associate fellow of Nautical Institute, UK (AFNI).

Capt. Jaikar joined MFB in December 2023 as Master Mariner. He is actively involved in various aspects of wet and dry shipping matters, including investigation and handling of disputes arising out of marine causalities including grounding, collisions, and salvage cases. He has assisted the team in carrying out VDR analysis, development of VDR transcripts and witness statements, among other things. He provides his expert technical advice on various charter party matters, as and when required.

Martin Dalby 

Martin qualified as Master with Shell, following an apprenticeship and ten years’ experience on vessels carrying crude oil and refined products, and chemicals. He also worked on LNG vessels and bulk carriers (coal and ore). His later seagoing experience was on RoRo vessels and ferries.

On coming ashore he worked in operational roles in ports and terminals (mainly bulk liquids including liquified gases and food grade products) before entering P&I insurance on the claims side, and finally law in 1999. Since then he has dealt exclusively with litigation arising from the navigation and cargo handling aspects of vessel operations. He has attended well over 100 vessels worldwide to take evidence on claims large and small.

In recent years, his work has tended to focus on collisions and navigational casualties, general average, fires, equipment breakdown, and tanker cargo matters.