Richard du Moulin-led Intrepid Shipping — the low-profile shipowner that once made headlines for major merger deals in US-flag shipping — is ending operations.
The move comes after du Moulin took on the chairman seat at Pangaea Logistics Solutions, where Intrepid partner Mark Filanowski took on the chief executive job in the wake of the death of Edward Coll.
News that Intrepid has reached the end of the road follows reports that the company has sold its last owned ship. As TradeWinds reported on Tuesday, brokers said an undisclosed buyer purchased the 33,800-dwt Intrepid Eagle (built 2013) for $15m to $15.6m, with a charter attached.
"This is the end of operations for Intrepid," du Moulin told TradeWinds, though he declined to comment on reports of the sale.
It is not the first time that the Intrepid Shipping name has been retired, however.
Intrepid Shipping began in 1989, when du Moulin and Filanowski led it in a takeover of Nasdaq-listed shipowner Marine Transport Lines.
Eleven years later, that company was merged into Connecticut tanker giant OMI, which immediately spun-off the US-flag operation into Marine Transport Corp (MTC), with du Moulin as president and Filanowski as chief financial officer.
Then in February 2001, Jacksonville-based Crowley purchased MTC, which saw the Intrepid Shipping partners resign a year later.
In 2002, they founded Intrepid Shipping LLC in Stamford as an owner and operator of international-flag bulkers and tankers.
They have both been board members at Nasdaq-listed Pangaea, a Rhode Island-based bulker operator where Filanowski became chief operating officer in 2017. The two then took over the roles of Coll, who was Pangaea chairman and chief executive, after he died last month.
Du Moulin, a high-profile member of the Connecticut shipping community, is also a board member at Teekay Tankers and a transport advisor to Hudson Structured Capital Management.
"Perhaps most interesting is my ongoing work on the board of the Seamen’s Church Institute, perhaps the most worthy organisation in the maritime field!" du Moulin said, referring to the non-profit that provides advocacy, education and pastoral care for mariners.
