Curnow Shipping, the Falmouth-based ship management company with its offices in Killigrew Street, is to close down in the near future.

The writing had been on the wall for Curnow after the company failed in its bid to win another five year term to operate the passenger liner St Helena. The Government awarded Andrew Weir Shipping the contract and they take over the St Helena at Falmouth on August 28 when the ship embarks passengers and sails south.

Curnow's managing director Simon Sugrue said: "Our office is up for sale and Curnow Shipping will gradually disappear. Unfortunately, as a company we had no significant business apart from managing the St Helena contract. We made the decision to call it a day. There will be a handful of redundancies out of the 126 people we employ. Many employees are transferring to the new management company."

Mr Sugrue, who is 61, said that it was disappointing that the company was closing down. "I would rather it hadn't happened this way." He now intends to retire from shipping.

In May police and the Serious Fraud Office raided Curnow Shipping and took away boxes containing files and documents. There is no suggestion that Simon Sugrue or the company's financial director Chris Gardiner has done anything wrong or that they are in anyway implicated by the police inquiries.

The shipping agency firm of GC Fox and Co., acquired by Curnow Shipping two years ago, is still in business. It is widely known in port circles that some of the other agencies within the port and possibly others from outside have expressed a keen interest in buying the business. Unconfirmed reports suggest that GC Fox is up for sale for £200,000.

Management at Falmouth Docks have been trying to make Falmouth the UK terminal for the St Helena since the mid 1980's and it remains to be seen if Andrew Weir Shipping will continue to use Cardiff as a base port for the ship.

Curnow Shipping was set up by Andrew Bell and Simon Sugrue. After 25 years as Curnow's managing director, Andrew Bell left the company in a boardroom shake-up in September, 1999, and has had nothing more to do with the company since his departure.

Bell and Sugrue had their big break when the Union Castle Line ceased trading to Ascension and St Helena. The Government put the business out to tender and Curnow Shipping won the contract in 1977 because they had the right ship for the job. The rest is now history. Both men have made a significant contribution to a special sector of British shipping and Curnow has trained many fine men who went on to land themselves top jobs in the marine industry.

Mr Bell, a former town councillor and deputy Mayor of Helston, is a much respected figure in the British shipping industry and was given an OBE for services to the South Atlantic dependency of St Helena.

During his time at the helm of Curnow Shipping, Andrew Bell won and oversaw the running of three contracts to operate the RMS St Helena on behalf of the British Government and it was a surprise when he left the company.

The RMS St Helena is now heading towards Falmouth on her final voyage under Curnow Shipping management. She sailed from St Helena a week ago and is expected to dock at Falmouth next Thursday to disembark passengers and drydock.

Writing in "The Islander", the Ascension Island newspaper, Captain Martin Smith, master of the St Helena, said: "When the ship sails from St Helena, 24 years of Curnow Shipping's presence on the island will materially disappear. However, its influence and benefit to many on the island will remain."