About Us

Welcome to Hunter Maritime Services.

We offer expert witness services to the worldwide Maritime community and will be happy to assist with your civil, criminal or arbitral needs.

Please contact us to discuss how we can support your potential or ongoing claims.

In particular, we offer expertise in:

Navigation

Collision, Grounding, Unsafe Port & Berth, Damage to Fixed & Floating Objects.

Cargo (Tankers: Crude Oil, Products, LNG)

Seaworthy Vessel & Due Diligence, Tanker Operation Claims, Pollution, Commercial Claims.

Ship Operations

Pilotage, Mooring, Anchoring, Fire & Explosion

Our Crew

Captain Douglas Hunter

LLM, MBA, AFNI, AFRIN

With over thirty years at sea and nearly two decades as a marine pilot, Douglas brings a wealth of operational experience across the whole tanker sector as well as significant skill in shiphandling and navigation.

He has long been accepted as a subject matter expert in these fields by Multi-National companies and can be relied upon to offer solid, no nonsense expert opinion.

Linkedin

douglas.hunter@hunter-maritime.uk

Qualifications

LLM Commercial Law (Merit, University of Sunderland)

MBA (Distinction, University of Roehampton)

BA (Hons) (History & Classical Studies, University of Surrey)

Master Mariner (MCA, Unrestricted, Passed 2002)

Expert Witness Certification (Under Study, CUBS)

Memberships

Associate Fellow of the Nautical Institute

Associate Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation

Supporting Member London Maritime Arbitrators Association

Experience

Ship Handling/Navigation

After 4 years in Officer Training and a further 12 years engaged in worldwide trade as a certificated Ships Officer I amassed in excess of 8500 hours in charge of a navigational watch.

Over the next 19 years as a Mooring Master I gained subsequent experience in pilotage, conning more than 900 ships across a range of berths. This includes extensive expertise in berthing at Single Point Moorings, Conventional Buoy Moorings (Mediterranean Moor) and docking with lesser exposure to tandem and Ship to Ship (STS). For the last decade I have also been a principal trainer of Mooring Masters.

I am considered a subject matter expert in this field.

Cargo Operations

With over three decades in the tanker trade, I bring extensive experience of crude oil (VLCCs, Suezmax, Aframax), Product Carriers up to 40,000 DWT in both clean & dirty grades and LNG cargoes.

This includes the planning and execution of custody transfer from both ship and shoreside including the management of ship stability, ballasting, tank washing, crude oil washing and inert gas operations.

As a Mooring Master I routinely provide oversight to ship operation as well as the verification and completion of all commercial documents including bills of lading.