There is a long history of identifiers being reused in world shipping.
One of the staples of contracts class in the first year at many law schools is Raffles v Wichelhaus, an English contract case from 1864.
There was a contract for someone to sell a bunch of bales of cotton from India to a buyer in England. The contract called for the cotton to be sent on a ship called the Peerless to Liverpool from Bombay.
Unknown to both the buyer and the seller there were actually two different ships called Peerless both sailing from Bombay to Liverpool, one arriving in October and one in December.
They seller was thinking of the December one when signing the contract, and the buyer was thinking of the October one.
The buyer needed the cotton in October and when it did not arrive on the Peerless in October the buyer considered the contract broken and refused to accept the cotton that came on the December Peerless.
One of the staples of contracts class in the first year at many law schools is Raffles v Wichelhaus, an English contract case from 1864.
There was a contract for someone to sell a bunch of bales of cotton from India to a buyer in England. The contract called for the cotton to be sent on a ship called the Peerless to Liverpool from Bombay.
Unknown to both the buyer and the seller there were actually two different ships called Peerless both sailing from Bombay to Liverpool, one arriving in October and one in December.
They seller was thinking of the December one when signing the contract, and the buyer was thinking of the October one.
The buyer needed the cotton in October and when it did not arrive on the Peerless in October the buyer considered the contract broken and refused to accept the cotton that came on the December Peerless.