Like so much else in life, Gregory Papadakis’ career as a globe-trotting ship repair broker began by accident.

In 1988, one year before the Iron Curtain fell, a Greek client’s ship was damaged in the Baltic and had to go for emergency repairs at the Gdanska Stocznia Remontowa yard in Poland.

Papadakis, then a 34-year-old shipbroker, liked what he saw.