An admiralty proceeding in personam has been described as a proceeding wherein one is charged personally with respect to some matter of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction.  A proceeding in rem is founded on a right in the res (property), and the object of the process is to obtain the res, or a satisfaction out of it, for a claim resting on a real or quasi-property right in it, thus subjecting it to the satisfaction of the asserted claim.[i]  The purpose of an in rem proceeding is to provide a forum by which the rights of claimants and other parties in the vessel may be determined and the proceeds of the sale thereof distributed.

[i] C.J. Hendry Co. v. Moore, 318 U.S. 133, 63 S. Ct. 499, 87 L. Ed. 663 (1943).