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A Picture History of                                                                J. P. Knight

J. P. Knight (1892 - 1991)                                                           Scrap Book

                          A Brief History of JP Knight

In 1892 James Percy Knight and Robert Jeffries decided to start a towing company on the River Thames. They rented offices in Great Tower Street, London, purchased 3 tugs, Kaiser, Kathleen and Marmion and commenced bussiness as the "Kaiser Towing Company" . In 1897, with 6 tugs in the fleet, towage of cement barges started between the Thames and Medway. This was the opening for establishing the Medway fleet. With the outbreak of war in 1914 saw the change of company name (for obvious reasons) from "Kaiser Towing  Co."  to J.P. Knight. With 8 tugs in the fleet five were hired out to the Admiralty and three working on the Thames. After the war J.P. Knight continued trading and by 1930 owned 10 tugs, four on the Thames and six on the Medway. Between 1930 and 1940 some of the older steam tugs were replaced by diesel tugs. By 1940 the Thames and Medway fleet consisted eighteen tugs. 1939 saw the outbreak of World War II and the requisition of J.P. Knight tugs for use by the Admiralty and P.L.A After hostilities ended and tugs returned to their bases JPK had lost two tugs, one being scrapped (worn out) and one purchased by the Admiralty. For four years JPK struggled to find work and then in 1949 an oil refinery was to be built on the Isle of Grain which gave JPK great hopes of work. In 1950 they secured a towing contract in connection with the oil refinery. By 1953 they were in the ship towing business, over the next ten years there were seven ship towing tugs as well as six barge tugs and four launch tugs. In 1967 barge towing business had dropped off so much that J.P. Knight (London) and Gaselee & son merged companies to try and ease the situation. This merger only lasted two years and the barge towing industry continued to decline. The 60s/70s and the first half of the 80s were very busy for the Sheerness fleet but other parts of the company did fare so well. By the middle eighties the oil refinery had closed and London was non existant. On the old refinery site the new container terminal was built and JPK secured the towage contract, one door closes and another opens. Due to operational problems J.P. Knight ceased trading on the river Medway in 1991. So ended 99 years of a family business of towing on the Thames and Medway.