Ship arrest in Senegal

Several offices of a large ship agency had provided services to a shipowner's owned ships and to one that had been chartered-in. Outstanding fees and disbursements totalled nearly US$200,000. Several months later, the shipowner had still not paid the disbursement accounts and the Club was asked to recover the debts. The entire fleet was placed under surveillance and lawyers throughout the world were instructed to arrest any ship associated with the owner in question.  After several anxious weeks, the Club's French lawyers, through their West African contacts, found the chartered-in ship trading off the coast of Senegal.  A petition for the arrest of the ship and her cargo of fuel oil was prepared and granted and both were seized on the next call at Dakar.  The Club obtained a full recovery of all the amounts due to the ship agent.