“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
*****
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
—————————————————————-
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.
——————————————————————
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.
——————————————————————
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.
—————————————————————–
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
(more…)