Most guys love Dos Equis' 'World's Most Interesting Man' spots. In a world where manliness is viewed suspiciously (if not an offensive relic), men look up to the spokeshombre who "once had an awkward moment just to see how it feels" and "lives vicariously through himself."
Sure the ads are funny, but it's rare to see a larger-than-life, capital-M Man seize the marketing spotlight from beer-guzzling frat boys.
But there is one man who is even more interesting than Dos Equis' latter-day Hemingway — and this one's real. Meet Max Hardberger.
We've mentioned Max before on the blog, highlighting his daring seizure of a freighter from a dangerous Haitian pier amidst a coup. As his men were cutting the anchor chains with torches, the bad guys couldn't call for help since Max hired a voodoo priest to curse the only place with cell phone access.
Like I said, Max is a pretty interesting guy.
Luckily for us, he's compiled his adventures in a new book, titled Seized. Due to our earlier hat-tip, we were blessed with an early copy. And let me assure you, it is one hell of a read.
The subtitle explains it as "a sea captain's adventures battling scoundrels and pirates while recovering stolen ships in the world's most troubled waters." A master raconteur, Max recounts his tales in episodic fashion with subtle details on the exotic locales and hair-raising dangers from sea and man alike.
His conversational tone puts you on a barstool next to him, sipping cervezas in some forgotten third-world port. In one chapter, he's liberating a 4,000-ton freighter from Puerto Caballo, hoping he gets to international waters before the Venezuelan Navy gets to him. Then he's evading Russian mobsters among giant rusting hulls in freezing Vladivostok. Then there's the time he flew out a squadron of crop dusters as East Germany collapsed around him. Oh, and make sure he tells you about his all-too eventful Easter aboard the Fontaka Saga in Piraeus.
Few of us could describe a day at work like this: "I fumbled at my machete, trying to get it out. Before I could do it, though, the hawser snapped. The ragged end shot back through the Panama chock, knocked over a ventilator trunk, and slammed into an empty fifty-five-gallon drum, bending it double... I had a sudden vision of blood and brains and glittering glass." Everyone survived that day, but not all the stories end that well.
Thankfully for the reader, Max drops in many personal touches, helping you understand how a bookish lad can grow into something out of a 1930s movie serial. He also recounts his shortcomings, showing that it wasn't swaggering braggadocio that carried him through the storms.
The warm months draw near, and Seized is the book you want in your hands at the beach. But make sure you pause to look over the vast ocean and wonder, where's Max now?