 The doctrine of maritime lien is that a ship will be treated as a wrongdoer, not the owner, that the loss, damage or harm is caused by the maritime property, "itself", and it has to make good for the loss.The attachment of maritime lien will start when the cause of action arises and will not be eliminated even by change of ownership in a good faith purchase.Two significant differences between maritime liens, which only exist in admiralty law, and the right to keep that exist in general civil law are (1) that in general civil law, "Prior in time is prior in right", i.e., the rights of the lienholder with the earliest lien are superior to those of later lienholders, whereas in maritime law the rights of the most recent lienholder are superior, and (2) all maritime liens are superior to all non-maritime liens.