The Bold Buccleugh

A celebrated English admiralty case decided in 1852 by the judicial committee of the privy council, establishing the rule that the privilege or claim of a maritime lien constitutes a present right of property in the ship, a jus in re, to be afterwards enforced in admiralty by process in rem; and that from the moment when the claim or privilege attaches, it is inchoate, and when carried into effect by legal process, by a proceeding in rem, it relates back to the period when it first attached. This claim or privilege travels with the vessel into whatsoever possession it may come, even that of a bona fide purchaser; and it is not divested by the death or insolvency of the owner. The John G. Stevens, 170 US 113, 42 L Ed 969, 18 S Ct 544.