BlueMountain Capital Management — the US hedge fund that closed its flagship fund last week — will go down as the poster child of how private equity misjudged and mistimed its high stakes investments in shipping over the past decade.

BlueMountain's investments have been on a scale second only to distressed hedge fund specialist Oaktree Capital Management.

But bets on large newbuilding plays and companies with precarious corporate governance damaged BlueMountain’s returns in its stormy seven-year odyssey through shipping.