Feral Jundi

     “My company has a new division called Shiprotek. I’m taking a team of ex-military guys to ride onboard ships going up the coast of Somalia and kill pirates.  Well, I shouldn’t say that — our aim is to scare them off, but our job is to protect the ship, whatever it takes. We’ll have one sniper with a Bushmaster .50 -caliber rifle, and the rest of us will have AK-47’s. There’s a chance that if we’re unable to repel the pirates, they’ll kill us.” -From Men’s Journal, High-Seas Repo Man, June 2010

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     Max is certainly an interesting guy.  His background and life experiences are very colorful and I could understand why Hollywood would want to do a film about him. Be sure to check out his book Seized if you would like to learn more about what he has done.

     But this is what I was interested in.  In the latest Men’s Journal magazine, Max stated that he is taking a team to the coast of Somalia.  This is the first I have heard of Shiprotek, and I have not heard of any recruitment for this company recently. That’s great if he is hiring some guys, and hopefully we will learn more about what this company is all about.

     His other services are well known, and this is an interesting direction that he is taking.  If you are interested in working for Max or want to learn more about what he is doing, by all means contact him. (He is extremely networked online-Facebook, Twitter, website, Youtube, etc.)

   One final thing I wanted to mention.  Max is also an admiralty lawyer, and he would be uniquely qualified to discuss how a Letter of Marque might be applied to today’s modern piracy issues. I have no idea if he supports the concept or not, but it would be interesting to hear what he has to say. Also, this post is not an endorsement of Max or his company, and I am just getting the info out there for consumption. –Matt

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Max Hardberger.

US firm markets commando solution to piracy threat

Edward Attwood

April 23rd, 2009

US-based Vessel Extractions LLC (VessEx) has just launched a bullish new solution to the maritime threat off Somalia: the presence of protection teams on board ships travelling on high-risk routes.”The defense of a ship under armed attack cannot be left to an untrained, unarmed civilian crew,” said Capt. Max Hardberger, VessEx’s operations director.“Our highly skilled and well-equipped teams offer effective and cost-efficient protection for ships going in harm’s way,” Hardberger added.The solution, named Shiprotek, involves placing a team of ex-Special Forces personnel on board a vessel anywhere in the world, which will then escort through troubled areas. During the voyage, the team assesses the ship’s security situation, trains the crew in anti-piracy techniques and implements procedures to minimise risk.

Story here.

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June 2010 — High-Seas Repo Man — Men’s Journal

Need to sneak a 10,000-ton ship out of a third-world port without a security clearance?  We’ve got your man.

Max Hardberger has worked variously as a pilot, a high school teacher, a maritime lawyer, and a marine surveyor. But it’s his 20 years recovering and repossessing ships and aircraft—the last eight of them as head of his New Orleans-based company, Vessel Extractions—that we were curious about. Here’s his story in his own words … Click here to read the full article.

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April 6, 2010 — The Broadway Books Imprint of Random House Releases Max Hardberger’s Memoirs

With the title of “SEIZED: A Sea Captains Adventures Battling Scoundrels and Pirates While Recovering Stolen Ships in the World’s Most Troubled Waters,” Max Hardberger’s latest book takes readers on a journey through the hellhole ports of the world.

Based on his adventures repossessing ships and sneaking them out of outlaw ports, often under the guns of the navy or coast guard, the book starts with his extraction of the M/V Naruda from an illegitimate seizure in Honduras and ends with his well-known repossession of the M/V Maya Express from Haiti during the worst days of the 2004 revolution. The hardback edition of SEIZED was released on April 6, 2010. To learn more about the Maya Express extraction, please read the Los Angeles Times article below entitled “He’s His Own Port Authority”.  And click here to read the press release from Random House announcing the release of SEIZED.

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SHIPROTEK ANTI-PIRACY SERVICES (VessEx/Shiprotek)

Ship piracy incidents are increasing across the world, particularly off the coast of Africa.  Pirates have become more and more brazen in their attacks, targeting larger ships at greater distances from shore than ever before.  Ships and their crews typically transit pirate-infested waters with little, if any, protection against an increasingly sophisticated enemy.

The Piracy Problem

Modern pirates usually attack in small speedboats, using automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades to force a vessel to stop.  They then use ropes and ladders to climb a ship’s hull and seize the crew.  Once they take control of a ship, pirates typically demand a substantial ransom to release the vessel.  British Foreign Secretary David Miliband stated that “payments for hostage-taking are only an encouragement to further hostage taking” and urged the international community to stand firm against the “scourge” of hostage-taking.  Unfortunately, the world’s military forces and law enforcement agencies lack the ability to effectively patrol the vast expanse of pirate-infested waters.  For this reason, governments are now urging shipowners to take proactive steps to protect their vessels from pirates.  According to the commander of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, “shipping companies have to understand that naval forces cannot be everywhere.  Self-protection measures are the best way to protect their vessels.”

However, ship crews are hired for their navigational or engineering training and experience, and are not trained for, or experienced in, resisting armed attacks on their vessels.  In fact, arming a ship’s crew and expecting it to provide effective resistance to such attacks could expose them to even greater danger.  Further, an armed resistance unit has to be trained and experienced in recognizing innocuous vessels whose actions could be misconstrued as aggressive, to avoid the kind of mistake that could result in harm to innocent parties.

 Shiprotek Anti-Piracy Services

VessEx Shiprotek is a service providing a highly skilled and trained team, armed with the latest and most effective weaponry, to escort ships through dangerous waters.  A Shiprotek team can board a client’s vessel at an agreed upon location, anywhere in the world, ride with the ship during the ship’s voyage through a troubled area, and disembark the vessel at a convenient port after the transit through the high-risk area.  During the transit, our personnel will:

• train the ship’s crew in proven techniques to deter a pirate attack,

• assess the ship’s security situation, including the identification of spaces to be used by the crew in the event of an emergency,

• implement procedures for minimizing the ship’s risk to a pirate attack, including the use of minimal lighting (safe navigation lights only) while transiting unsafe areas,

• conduct response drills during the early stages of the transit,

• maintain a 24/7 watch on the stern of the vessel, and

• establish communications protocols between the Shiprotek team and the crew

Upon the identification of a genuine threat from a civilian vessel, the VessEx Shiprotek team will first attempt to contact the vessel by radio to warn it to keep its distance or otherwise present evidence of peaceful intentions. If such assurances are not forthcoming, and the vessel continues its approach, the team will use high-powered binoculars, scopes, and/or night-vision goggles to determine the vessel’s intentions.At the moment that a threat is identified, the ship’s crew will commence emergency radio communications with law enforcement and military authorities. The engine-room crew will be instructed to secure fuel supply and other systems in preparation for a possible RPG strike in the engine room. The entire crew will be instructed to take cover as appropriate to the situation and watch-keeping requirements. The ship’s master will maintain full emergency speed.If the team leader determines that the intentions of an approaching vessel are aggressive and illegal, the team will use every effort to deter the attack by non-lethal means. The team’s primary aim at this point is to keep the threat vessel beyond RPG range (approx. 300 meters). If the threat vessel(s) continues its approach, the team will take measures to repel the attack and will coordinate with the vessel’s crew in implementing anti-boarding measures. If the attackers succeed in disabling the ship’s propulsive machinery, the ship’s crew will concentrate on keeping the vessel afloat and stabilized while the VessEx Shiprotek team will concentrate on preventing the pirates from boarding the vessel until naval, coast guard, or air assistance can arrive.Experience has indicated that, when presented with armed resistance, most pirates will break off the attack and decide to seek easier prey.