225. What constitutes breach of undertaking of seaworthiness during loading.

The duty imposed on the shipowner by the requirement of seaworthiness during loading is presumptively absolute; if the ship is in fact unfit at the time when the undertaking comes into operation, it does not matter that her unfitness is due to some latent defect of which he did not know, and it is no excuse for the existence of such a defect that he has used his best endeavours to make the ship as good as she can be made1. If, for example, in the course of the voyage, owing to a foul bill of health the ship