The owner of the shipment, not the owner of the ship mostly purchases cargo insurance. Cargo insurance could include such risks as theft , sea water damage, shortage, contamination, fire, explosion, jettison and loss overboard, general average sacrifice, general average contribution and salvage charges, and would depend on the cargo that is being insured. Cargo insurance would normally be on a warehouse to warehouse basis for containerised cargoes and port to port basis for bulk cargoes depending on the terms of sale or terms of purchase. Cargo insurance is preeminent and has within itself two classes, general and full cargo.
General cargoes consist of a variety of commodities shipped by one or by many merchants.
A vessel that facilitates a general cargo usually loads at berth and admits any commodity bound for any part to which the ship is journeying. On the other hand, full cargoes are loaded under charter, where the entire capacity is hired out to one merchant, who controls the use of the ship for the duration of the voyage. On-deck cargo consists of all commodities loaded upon the ship's main deck, whether it be undercover or not. On the other hand, under-deck cargo are all goods stored under the main deck. The reason for this is that on-deck cargo is more prone to disastrous events such as a storm, large waves, war or other such perils.