Need a Logo or a Website? Compare 8 Free Bids Today. Over 50,000 Designers Worldwide. DesignQuote.net

DQ News: Niche Biz: The Good Pirate

In 1990, former English teacher, Max Hardberger, started his own marine consultancy business in Louisiana. He was periodically retained by shipowners to extract their vessels from lawless ports without a clearance from local authorities. In 1998, following his admission to the California Bar, Hardberger began to practice maritime law alongside his marine consultancy and vessel extraction business. In 2002, Hardberger formed the ship repossession company Vessel Extractions, LLC to extract vessels that have been illegitimately detained or seized in foreign countries. The Telegraph has more:

Max Hardberger is a 62-year-old adventurer from Louisiana who specializes in stealing back ships that have been fraudulently seized in corrupt ports, mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean.

He describes himself as a ‘vessel repossession specialist’, a kind of maritime repo man who ghosts into tropical hellhole ports, outwits the guards and authorities, and ghosts out again with a 5,000- or 10,000-ton cargo ship, usually under cover of darkness and preferably during a heavy rainstorm.

A Hollywood film about his escapades is planned, with The Good Pirate as a working title, and there’s undoubtedly an element of piracy to what he does.

Hardberger has written anaccount of his efforts to recover a ship in Haiti in the book Seized: A Sea Captain’s Adventures Battling Scoundrels and Pirates While Recovering Stolen Ships in the World’s Most Troubled Waters. You can read an excerpt here.

Need a Logo for your new company? Compare 8 Free Bids Today. Over 50,000 Designers Worldwide. DesignQuote.net

Can You Just Build a Better Mousetrap?

A reader wrote: Who said “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door?” Is it true? The phrase is usually attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson. The phrase is actually a misquotation of his statement that, “If a man

Writers Don’t Need Publishers, They Need Amazon

NY Times: Amazon.com has taught readers that they do not need bookstores. Now it is encouraging writers to cast aside their publishers. Amazon will publish 122 books this fall in an array of genres, in both physical and e-book form. It is a striking accel

How To Self-Publish a Book

This sounds easy. I created an account on Createspace.com. They are owned by Amazon. Great customer service. You have any question at all you hit a button that says “Call Me” and within 30 seconds they have a customer representative calling your phone. I

How Vodka Became a Billion Dollar Business

According to the Jason Wilson, the author of Boozehound: On the Trail of the Rare, the Obscure, and the Overrated in Spirits, “The largest liquor companies in the world haven’t launched more than five hundred flavored vodkas because no one wan

You Really Can Select The Right Shipping Method For Your Business And Here’s How…

If you’re a retailer, you’ll need to select a shipping method that works best for you, depending on your needs. There are several options to get your products into your buyer’s hands. A few of the popular methods are: 1) Drop Shipping, 2) Order Fulfillmen

How to Use a $100 Bill As Packing Material

Financial Padding consists of crumpled paper $100 dollar bill look-alikes that are a fun replacement for standard packing peanuts. Your recipient will be surprised, excited, disappointed and amazed, all in the same moment upon opening their package. Their