The first came from Matthew Cox, chief executive of rival US shipowner Matson, with an offer to buy the Horizon’s Alaska business for $400m and to throw in $25m for its Puerto Rico business.

The second came from the Pasha Group, offering to buy Horizon’s Hawaii containership business for $150m.

So began the two Hawaii shipowners’ 20 months of overtures to take over and carve up Charlotte, North Carolina-based Horizon, a containership owner in the protected US cabotage trade.

In