Maritime claims and debt recovery

A maritime claim is a debt or damages claim that arises from the operation, use, supply or sale of a vessel. Turkish law lists them exhaustively — the list in art. 1352 of the Turkish Commercial Code — and the list matters because a claim on it can be secured by arresting the vessel in a Turkish port, and a claim off it cannot (TCC art. 1353).

The everyday maritime claims that reach us are money claims. All of these are on the list (TCC art. 1352):

• bunkers and lubricants supplied and not paid for;
• stores, spares, containers and services;
• repair and conversion invoices from a yard;
• port, pilotage, towage and agency accounts;
• unpaid freight and hire;
• insurance premiums and P&I calls;
• advances made for the vessel.

So are the damage claims — cargo loss, collision damage, salvage, general average contributions, environmental damage — which have their own pages on this site.

There are two ways to turn a maritime claim into money in Türkiye, and they are usually taken in this order.

Security first: arrest of the vessel

If the vessel connected with the claim, or another vessel owned by the person liable, is in a Turkish port, the claim can be secured by arrest before anything is decided on the merits.

1. Application to the commercial court of the place where the vessel lies (TCC art. 1355).
2. Security of 10,000 SDR lodged by the claimant (TCC art. 1363).
3. Execution by the enforcement office, immediately (TCC art. 1365).
4. Release — the owner usually provides security, a bank guarantee or, by agreement, a P&I club letter, to free the vessel (TCC arts 1370–1372).

Everything about that step is on the ship arrest page.

Then the claim itself

The arrest secures; it does not decide.TCC art. 1376 — within one month of execution the claimant must start proceedings on the merits

Unless the parties agreed on another forum or on arbitration, the action is heard by the court that ordered the arrest, and the enforcement office that executed the arrest conducts the enforcement (TCC art. 1359). A Turkish court can order the arrest even if the contract provides for arbitration or a foreign court (TCC art. 1356); the merits then go where the contract says, and the resulting foreign judgment or award is enforced by the arrest court while the vessel or the security is within its reach (TCC art. 1360).

Where no vessel is available to arrest

Documents

For all routes the file is the same: the contract or order confirmation, the invoices and delivery notes, the statement of account, the correspondence showing the sum is due and unpaid, and the vessel's name and IMO number. It is enough at the arrest stage to show evidence that satisfies the court that the claim is a maritime claim and of its amount (TCC art. 1362); the merits stage needs the full proof.

Some maritime claims are better than others.

gemi alacağımaritime lien — TCC arts 1320, 1321

A statutory pledge over the vessel and her appurtenances, given to a short list of claims against the owner, bareboat charterer, manager or operator.

• seafarers' wages and other sums due for service on board, including repatriation costs and social insurance contributions;
• loss of life and personal injury connected with the vessel's operation;
• salvage remuneration;
• port, canal, waterway, quarantine and pilotage dues;
• tort claims for physical loss or damage caused by the vessel's operation, other than to cargo, containers and passengers' effects;
• general average contributions.

What the lien gives

• Against anyone in possession. The lien can be asserted against whoever has possession of the vessel (TCC art. 1321(5)).
• Principal, interest and costs. It secures principal, interest and the costs of enforcement and proceedings (TCC art. 1322).
• Ahead of the mortgage. For every claim above except general average, it ranks ahead of all registered and unregistered mortgages and other charges (TCC art. 1323).
• Among themselves. Wages, personal injury, port dues and tort claims rank equally; salvage ranks ahead of every lien that arose before the salvage (TCC art. 1324).
• Which law. Whether a claim carries a lien is decided by Turkish law when the claim is pursued in Türkiye (TCC art. 1320(3)).

The lien is short-lived: it lapses one year after the claim arose — for wage claims, one year after the seafarer leaves the vessel — unless the vessel has been arrested within that year and is then sold in enforcement (TCC art. 1326). Ordinary supply, repair and agency claims do not carry a lien; they are maritime claims that can ground an arrest, but they rank behind the mortgage in a forced sale.