Maritime 'repo men': A last resort to recover stolen or seized ships

Miragoane, Haiti

IN Greece, Max Hardberger posed as an interested buyer, in Haiti as a port official, in Trinidad, a shipper. He has plied guards with booze and distracted them with prostitutes; spooked port police officers with witch doctors and duped night watchmen into leaving their posts. His goal: to get on board a vessel he is trying to retrieve and race towards the 20km line where the high seas begin and local jurisdiction ends.

Mr Hardberger is among a handful of maritime "repo men" who handle the toughest of grab-and-dash jobs in foreign harbours, usually on behalf of banks, insurers or shipowners. A last-resort solution to a common predicament, he is called when a vessel has been stolen, its operators have defaulted on their mortgage or a ship has been fraudulently detained by local officials.