Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Captain Hardberger is a very unique and driven man! He is licensed to serve as Captain on any oceangoing merchant ship, he's a flying instructor, and has passed the Bar Exam in California, certainly a unique set of credentials. Based on this book, he applies the energy and dedication it would take to acquire such a varied skill set to every task he undertakes as a professional. The book reads as a series of stories about different situations, mostly involving something to do with a ship being held in port illegitimately or through corruption (one story involves slipping several dozen cropdusting planes out of East Germany in the chaotic days just before German reunification). He gives us a lot of insight into the details of how merchant ships do business in a wide variety of ports, and the problems this creates both for the ships and for the merchants and service providers who tend to their needs. These are very readable, and really do seem like something from Mission Impossible in some cases.

Less obvious is the darker side of his life--The relationships in his life suffer because he is continually traveling overseas, and is frequently in imminent peril of being imprisoned. And often he has difficulty getting paid or the men his clients hire to help him don't get paid, or get paid a pittance after risking death or imprisonment to get someone else's big-money asset out. A significant number of the ships he rescues are lost at sea or otherwise go out of service only a couple of years after his involvement with them.

It wasn't "Gripping" in the sense that I was lost in his world hanging on every word, but it is well-written and I kept reading. I finished the book in one evening with a couple of short breaks. Usually he explains technical or professional matters adequately, but in a handful of cases he referred to things where I didn't know what he was talking about (and as a naval history buff I'm more attuned to nautical matters than most landlubbers).

Strongly recommended as an entertaining read, but it won't rock your world.

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 adventure. A highly enjoyable read.

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.

This is one of those books that doesn't often get written because the person most qualified to write it doesn't have the breadth of anecdotes or literary expertise to put such a book together. So, Max Hardberger proves the exception to that rule. Unfortunately, he also is up front about the fact that in writing this book, he has combined or embellished some of his experiences in the interest of making the book readable and enjoyable, which I have to say, this book is both. There is, however, a certain air of lack of coordination about this book, in that the stories and characters are all just jumbled together like a mass of torn seaweed and dead fish washed up on a beach. The stories don't evoke any sympathy, joy, or any emotion really with any of the characters involved. Somebody cares that some Greek guys can't get their Ghana-registered boat out of a Guatemalan port, but not me. Somebody cares that a Bulgarian interpreter is manipulating the Russian mafia to make some extra dough on an admittedly shady deal, but not me. Still, I found the book interesting enough to read all the way through, and I learned a little something about international waters, shipping, sea-going vessels, and the men (and women) who ride them. Mr. Hardberger has not led the single-most interesting life in the history of mankind, but his is different than most and one can just dip their toes in the waters of his experience by dealing with the uneven tale-telling of this above average book.

I met Max in 1976 or 77 while in college; my roomate at the time, Chuck, and Max had been good friends for a number of years. After college, I saw him infrequently for the next few years and probably have not seen him "face to face" since the mid-1990s. I did see our mutual friend fairly regularly unitl he passed away last year and he always had some kind of story about what Max was up to. Aside from being what I'd call a good, entertaining read, "Seized" filled in a lot of chronogical gaps in our friendship for me and put into perspective some of the comments Chuck had made over the years. The stories in "Seized" read exactly the way I would expect based what I personally know about Max's life and on Chuck's recounting of what Max was up during those years when Max and I were out of touch. I can assure you that these stores are based in fact and it is a good account of Max's life. I've seen some comments to the effect that some reviewers might be interested in hearing these stories in person. I can promise you that it would be one of the most interesting and entertaining evenings you could have. I think he is available for those kinds of engagements. You can contact him via maxhardberger dot com.

The author Max Hardberger carries credentials of airplane pilot and licensed instructor, oil rig worker, a high school teacher, attorney, and....licensed Captain of any merchant ship in any sea. I also might add: repo man, adventurer, and now....an author. I personally might add another skill...operations officer and tactician.

In this 286-page autobiography, Hardberger relates a dozen recoveries of illegally seized ships in some of the most dangerous ports in the world. He seemed remarkably skilled at creating sound operational plans and diversionary schemes to steal back illegally seized ships.

Hardberger also spoke a some length about how merchant marine shipping is done, and the laws and rules that deal with it. As an example, He took the reader through an entire process of a name change for a vessel which was a big part of one of the repos.

In one short paragraph, he made a point by alluding to an adventure where he crash-landed a plane who's engine was on fire. He didn't even bother telling about THAT incident. Somehow or other, I think he has a few more adventures that didn't even make the cut.

An engaging first effort, and smoothly done. I rate this 4.8 stars, and worth your read time.

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.

Captain Max Hardberger is a man's man, and this book tells you how cool he is and how it makes my ordinary desk job seem awful in comparison to the life and adventure he has.

Reclaiming freighters that have been stolen isn't the easiest task there is, and Captain Max is part spy, part thief in order to get his job done. The stories themselves are something that's made for a suspenseful movie, and it's amazing that he hasn't ended up shot or worse in all of these. And reading his exploits all over the world, it's like you're there with him with the vivid descriptions of non-glamorous places and you will have your heart pumping.

The book itself is a good quick read. Sure, it doesn't flow well but it's not a novel, but a retelling of events. And as a story teller, Captain Max is amazing.

I had never thought of how one would go about recovering a stolen ship. This book was an education.