Standing in a repair shipyard in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1974, inspecting the shattered bottom end bearing of a 30,000-HP diesel engine, engineer Paul Vragel knew he had a problem-several, actually. The hobbled engine powered a ship that was in Lisbon for its guarantee drydocking and inspection. The ship, owned by Vragel's multinational oil company employer, and the engine both were built in Spain. Vragel's employer had a contract with the company that built the ship, but not the one that built the engine-which was constructed under license from a Danish company. The repair shipyard was charging the company $30,000 a day (about $250,000 in today's dollars) to dock the ship there, adding to the urgency.
展开▼
