Sam Spade Sam Spade Sam Spade is a fictional private detective and the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel, "The Maltese Falcon". Spade also appeared in four lesser-known short stories by Hammett. "The Maltese Falcon", first published as a serial in the pulp magazine "Black Mask", is the only full-length novel in which Spade appears. The character, however, is widely cited as a crystallizing figure in the development of hard-boiled private detective fiction—Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, for instance, was strongly influenced by Spade. Spade was a departure from Hammett's nameless and less-than-glamorous detective, The Continental Op. Spade combined several features of previous
Maltese Falcon (yacht) activate the controls, yet it is possible for a single person to operate the yacht. In a radio interview for the BBC World Service's Global Business programme broadcast in December 2007, Perkins claimed that he personally wrote some of the yacht's unique control software. On 4 November 2007, in a "60 Minutes" profile, Perkins suggested the yacht cost more than $150 million but less than $300 million, refusing to be more specific. Damon Roberts of Insensys, Ltd. was responsible for designing and manufacturing the DynaRig of "Maltese Falcon" at the Perini Navi premises in Tuzla, İstanbul. The design, testing and