On the first of February, 1901, Nicholson Towage recorded three vessels in their list of assets.   These were the steam paddle tugs, Gleaner, Tom Perry and Reaper.   By the same day in 1909, they had disposed of the Reaper, substituted the King Edward VII for the Tom Perry and added the Fastnet (valued at 1,887 8s 4d in stirling).   A year later, the Gleaner had gone, leaving them with the King Edward VII and the Fastnet for the next four years (last recorded in the assets 1st February 1914), after which they continued with only the King Edward VII until their liquidation date of 2nd December 1919.

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Henry Nicholson was born in Great Yarmouth and was a Marine engineer in 1881.   By 1901 he had become an owner running a Tug Company.   Henry was possibly the son of George Nicholson who was born in North Shields before moving to Great Yarmouth and marrying. George was also a marine engineer and owned his own Tug Company in 1896.   George Retired sometime between 1896 and 1901.   Henry’s brother John Charles Nicholson was a shareholder in the new company and Henry’s son Ernest served on the King Edward VII.   John must have served on the tugs as he is listed as an engineer in the shareholders list.

Henry’s previous company ordered the King Edward VII tug from Rennoldson and Sons of South Shields prior to forming the Nicholson’s Towage Company Ltd.   A look at the 1905 Quinquennial list of ships for South Shields reveals that nearly all ships registered there were Steel as oppose to Great Yarmouth where it was approximately 50% wood and 50% steel.   This reflects the local shipbuilding industry and must have been the reason Henry bought the ship from South Shields rather than getting it built in Yarmouth.

The company continued to trade after Henry’s death in 1912 (for obituary click HERE) in much the same way as before, until World War I when, it seems, the tugs were requisitioned for work at Harwich.   The evidence for this being that the Nicholson Towage crews were awarded the mercantile marine medal, although the Navy List does not mention them specifically.   However there were 5 boom defence vessels at Harwich which could well have included the Nicholson tugs.   There is an unsubstantiated rumour that one of these tugs rammed and sunk a german U-boat off Harwich, and later, in a separate later incident, was itself sunk by a submarine.

Nicholson Towage was eventually wound up in 1920. It is interesting that no other Nicholson took the company over, despite there being many children.