The petition is one of the common actions for vessel owners in the wake of disastrous crashes such as the one in Baltimore.
It invokes a 19th-century law once used by the Titanic’s owner to diminish the vessel owner’s liabilities following a collision to the value of the vessel and pending freight.
The firms said that they anticipate the liability limit they seek to be substantially lower than the amount that was or will be claimed in the damages or...