Seized: A Sea Captain's Adventures Battling Scoundrels and Pirates While Recovering Stolen Ships in the World's Most Troubled Waters

I know little about the sea and have never sailed anything larger than a Sunfish. But I grew up in a port and am not happy far from one, and I loved Hammond Innes adventure boods (such as Atlantic Fury) when I was a boy. I don't know if Max Hardberger did the same, but you get the flavor from passages like: "Ramesh had cut the tail line and was standing over the stern breast line as I ran up." 'Wait,' I hissed, 'Wait!' 'Let's wait 'til de bow is out,' he whispered. 'Dat way de ship will drif' straight.' I nodded and clapped him on the shoulder. The stern closed with the dock as the bow swung out, the stern breast line acting as a fulcrum. Then the stern went aground, and as the bow tried to keep swinging, the stern breast line groaned and trembled under the strain. I fumbled with my machete, trying to get it out. Before I could do it, though, the hawser snapped. The ragged end shot back through the Panama chock, knocked over a ventilator trunk, and slammed into an empty fifty-five gallon drum, bending it double." The mix of nautical jargon, precisely described physical actions and enthusiastic adventures with buddies is still irresistible to me. In this case the stories are true, which makes things more interesting, although not as neatly dramatic as adventure fiction. Who wouldn't want to be the guy who has a reliable pal in every port, who can captain a ship and fly a plane, and who can plot a course anywhere in the world to a port where your enemies can't get you, mend a hull, bribe a customs inspector or con a judge; all for a little money and the satisfaction of not letting the crooks and sleazeballs run your corner of the world. I admit the claimed ratio of risk to cash reward strains credulity, so I suspect the former was smaller or the latter was bigger than the book implies. I believe that an outraged sense of justice was a major motivation but it may have been exaggerated. All of this would have made this a four-star book, and a guilty pleasure at that. But as you read, you discover there is far more than a boys' adventure story here. This is a serious autobiography of a fascinating guy. True, stealing ships isn't curing cancer or fighting for world peace, but it is a bold and individual assertion of individuality. His story, and there is much more to his life than the repossessions or even than the sea, is an inspiration for anyone who ever despaired at the list of careers their high school guidance counselor had on offer. You can make your own life, on your own terms, without anyone's permission. It may not end well, but your high school guidance counselor can't promise you a happy ending either. And who can say what the effect of your ripples will be?

Max Hardberger's Seized, a Sea Captains Adventures - Battling Scoundrels and Pirates while Recovering Stolen Ships in the World's Most Troubled Waters is a fascinating account of one man's remarkable career and personal journey. In addition to working professionally as a crop-duster, school teacher, lawyer, and ship's captain, Max Hardberger developed the rather unusual specialty of returning stolen property, very large stolen property. He steals back ships wrongly seized in foreign ports and returns them to their owners. There is a cliche that petty thieves steal with guns while the big thieves steal with pens. Hardberger's career as a "ship extractor" began when as captain of the bulk carrier, Naruda, which had just discharged a cargo of rice in Haiti, a claim was filed against the ship for a short discharge. The claim was false and even if valid, should have been filed against shipper and not the ship. Nevertheless an unscrupulous merchant, paying off a corrupt judge in a third world port, just might have succeeded in stealing the ship. With guile, stealth, liquor for the guards, and a bit of bribery Captain Hardberger succeeded in slipping the ship out of Cap Haitian. It was the beginning of a highly varied career as a ship thief. In Seized, Captain Hardburger describes sneaking ships out of Venezuela, Haiti, Trinidad, Belgium, Honduras, Mexico and Greece, as well as flying forty seven crop dusters out of East Germany. In the process he had to cope with corrupt officials, the Russian mob, political unrest, and a mixed bag of scoundrels, pirates and con men. He describes the difficulty of sneaking ship out of port. Most ships have diesel engines which can make a lot of noise in the dead of night when trying to slip out of a port unnoticed. In one case, Captain Hardberger merely slipped the lines and let the ship drift out with the wind and current to a waiting tug. In another case, he arranged for a very noisy party at a neighboring waterfront whorehouse to mask the sound of the ship's engines starting up. The range of trickery, diversions and deceptions used to extract ships from ports around the world is highly entertaining. What makes this memoir something more than a group of sea stories loosely strung together is that we also follow Captain Harberger's personal journey. This includes the highs and lows, from his passing the California bar exam to become an attorney (after completing a law school correspondence course,) to the end of his marriage and the tragic loss of a daughter to heart disease. The memoir ends in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina where he has lost most of his worldly possessions while still in mourning over his daughter's death. Nevertheless, it is clear that he will carry on. There is still work to be done and just possibly more ships to save. Seized, a Sea Captains Adventures - Battling Scoundrels and Pirates while Recovering Stolen Ships in the World's Most Troubled Waters is a gripping story of real-life adv

Captain Hardberger's book introduced me to a world that I knew nothing about. I am not a seaman and certainly have no experience with repossessing ships. As a result, I found the book to be extremely interesting. The writing is simple, straightforward, and basically just tells the story. It is as if you are just listening to his yarns. The author has experience as a ship captain, airplane pilot, lawyer, teacher, adventurer, and raconteur. His experiences in this book deal with recovering stolen freighters for a living - Central and South America, Greece, Russia, The Netherlands. The man gets around. Usually his repossessions involve outsmarting the other guy or finding a way to remove the vessel in the middle of the night without drawing the attention of the authorities. The situations are almost always nip and tuck, and certainly call for an ability to think on your feet. I found the book to be highly entertaining and would recommend it to anyone interested in ships or looking for some adventure stories.

I wish this pre-publication copy had a portrait of Max Hardberger, but perhaps it's wise not to help out any of the many low-lifes he has upset in his extraordinary career. How many guys hold many of the various licenses that entitle you to command a ship, have been a cropduster pilot, and flying instructor, and passed the California Bar exam at the first try based entirely on self-study? Quite a character, and the book reflects that. It's a mostly autobiographical account of a life containing as much varied action as about any ten others. He was a sort of "repo man" but with a difference - he wasn't repossessing cars or trucks, but merchant ships that various crooked or corrupt entities had managed to get their hands on and tie up with legalities in a third-world port. To help him, he has an extraordinary network of world-wide contacts who can provide at short notice anything from a complete ships' crew, to an engine-room part, to a fast boat to meet him at sea, to fifty shipping containers big enough to hold small planes being smuggled out of East Germany...just one extraordinary story after another. He is not short of determination, initiative, and personal force. It's a world most of us have never seen...everything is done with bundles of cash, tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars transferred by Western Union. Lots of practical hints: if you ever have to rename a ship that carries the name "Faroah VII" in foot-high steel letters, you tell the workman, "Okay, the new build name is "Lapo VI. " You cut off the last A and H and the second I in the Roman numeral. You make the F an L and the R a P. Easy as pie." And there are some fascinating human stories - his friend Charlie gets his Colombian girlfriend pregnant. He tells his wife that "abortion was out of the question, and that he would have to divorce her so he could marry Adelia and bring her and his son to the United States." His wife agrees(!) and the new family come to the US, but the immigration authorities are watching him because they suspect it was a sham marriage, so he "got into the routine of leaving his new wife's house every morning to go down to have coffee with his ex-wife and plan the day's work." Max comments that "Charlie was the kind of guy who made the world do things his way". No kidding. Great read - I gulped it in two sessions. Enjoy.

I'm not much of a reader, but will do it on occasion to relax and pass the time. However with my Attention Deficit Disorder, I have countless books that I've started, and made it 3/4 of the way through and left them sit to not finish. I started this book and finished it in a matter of days, and it is a couple hundred page read. As someone else commented, the story reads just like your sitting next to someone in the bar. The story is very relatable and expresses compassion. It is the good guy side of piracy in a sense. The book would make a great gift for anyone interested in the maritimes. Anybody that loves the sea has an inherent love of reading sea stories.