History
The founder
Richard F. Smith, a King’s Point graduate, initiated Seaking Corp. in 1962 with Jimmy Chan, son of a prominent Shanghai based owner who had migrated to New York; and Nick Kosakos. They first operated a fleet of Liberty ships among them the famous “Grand Faith” and “Grand Explorer”. In the early 70’s, the company grew with a fleet of tankers, and entered the emerging box market working mainly with Sealand (“Grand Navigator” being the first of the series).
Birth of Crest Shipping Agencies ( NY) Ltd.
In 1978, Richard F. Smith spun off with the tanker division, giving birth to an independent Crest Shipping. The company ran a steady fleet of five tankers trading worldwide but with a focus on the Venezuela-US Gulf trades with US Oil Majors.
A Mature Operator
In the mid-80’s Crest Shipping acquires the remains of American Export Lines. a US shipping company founded in 1919 which had a proven record in the Roll On Roll off trades. The most famous asset being the “Admiral Callaghan” a 3,900 lane-meters Cape P Class Ro-Ro equipped with GE gas turbines.
In the 90’s, the company headquartered on Broadway and Battery Park in Manhattan, was strongly involved in the Gulf war operations with the US Sea-Lift Command, running a fleet of 10 RoROs chartered to the US Government under US flag.
From 1996, a RoRo service was launched through a Mexican subsidiary “Baja Ferries” operating between Baja and mainland Mexico. The subsidiary, that operated three lines, soon became the main player in the area. Operating from 2003 a 2001 built, 2,000 Lm, 1,000pax Ro-Pax (“California Star”) and three other RoRos. In 2008, at the peak of the shipping boom, Crest Shipping disinvested good part of its interests in the various services operates in México.
