This chapter analyzes smart contracts in maritime transport as instruments of digital governance rather than standalone technological innovations. It situates smart contracts within the broader digital transformation of maritime trade, examining how contractual complexity, fragmented information flows, multi-actor coordination, and multi-jurisdictional regulation both enable and constrain automation. The chapter establishes the theoretical foundations of smart contracts as governance mechanisms and examines their application across key maritime domains, including container shipping, bulk trades, ports and terminals, shipbuilding, marine insurance, maritime finance, and bunkering. It highlights differentiated adoption patterns, identifying where smart contracts create value and where legal interpretation, operational discretion, or institutional arrangements limit full automation. A focused technical analysis addresses practical implementation challenges, including oracle architectures, platform selection across public, permissioned, and hybrid blockchain models, and dominant programming languages across operational and legal contexts. The chapter identifies hybrid architectures as the prevailing model, reconciling public blockchain neutrality with confidentiality, compliance, and governance requirements. The analysis further evaluates legal, technological, and economic implications, including interoperability, cybersecurity, data governance, and regulatory alignment. Drawing on empirical platform evidence, the chapter demonstrates that smart contracts function most effectively as embedded governance tools that enhance transparency, coordination, auditability, and risk management, rather than as autonomous substitutes for legal contracts or institutional judgement.