Affreightment

Affreightment is when someone hires a boat or ship to carry something for them. Just like you might hire a truck to bring your toys from one house to another, someone can hire a big boat to bring things like food or toys from one place to another over the ocean.

The person who hires the boat is called the "charterer." They pay the owner of the boat, called the "shipowner," to use the boat for a certain amount of time or for a certain trip. The shipowner is responsible for making sure the boat is ready to go and that it can safely carry the things the charterer wants to transport.

Sometimes the charterer will hire the entire boat and be responsible for loading and unloading everything, while other times they might just rent part of the boat, called "space," and share the boat with other people who also want to transport things.

Overall, affreightment is just a fancy way of saying that someone hired a boat to transport something.