the voyage could not yet have commenced because the vessel was still partly at the dock since a breast and spring line were still made fast.  Support of a legal nature to that highly artificial approach is thought to be found in the Section 3 phrase 'before and at the beginning' of the voyage, as though blending these two prepositions expands a 'beginning' from some precise moment to a sort of continuing transitional state.


9
The use of 'before and at' does not make the commencement of the voyage-- whenever it is-- any less a beginning.  When the voyage begins, it is the voyage, and not the beginning of it, which continues.  The dual reference is to make doubly sure that with respect to cargo then beingloaded the vessel must be seaworthy at the time of the receipt of cargo and must continue in that state until the ship sails.  That the duty reaches backward from commencement does not make it reach forward, as the Act prescribes that the latest point of performance is at the beginning.  The voyage must have some place (and time) of beginning.  After that, it is not the beginning, but the voyage itself which transpires.


10
In the light of these principles a majority of the Court therefore concludes that the voyage had commenced at the time the wound to the ship's side was sustained.


11
We need but briefly indicate our views.  In a very real sense the voyage had begun.  The ship had no further purpose