It might be intriguing to find out ...
...how many items are languishing in customs warehouses around the Med.
Ship orders spares to go to next port of call
spares flown out civair to, let's say Catania or Siracusa
pusser tries to get said spares out but either, doesn't speak Italian and is stumped by the Byzantine customs procedures or won't pay the "facilitation fee".
The man who HAS to stamp the paperwork is away/at lunch/on holiday/not available (no fee has been forthcoming)
Ship sails in order to stay on schedule
re-orders spares to be delivered to next port of call ummm Greece maybe??
I found this when I badly needed spares to fix our aircraft. While I negotiated with the man, chiefie wandered around and came up with a/c batteries, hydraulic pipes and other associated a/c bits that the intended recipients had never found their way to. For a small extra consideration we were allowed to load all this stuff into our van and depart.
The SK MRGB tag above reminded me of a friend who was responsible for these a good few years ago. In a depot my friend found a large cage full of them. All were "quarantined" as the a/c was subject to an incident report and were waiting "examination" in the investigation into the incident. The incident reports had long been cleared. They had clearly been forgotten about. And new ones were procured.
The Ancient Mariner