Cox & King yachts
Encyclopedia
Cox & King were a British firm based in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They also had offices and later a shipyard in Wivenhoe
Wivenhoe
Wivenhoe is a town in north eastern Essex, England, approximately south east of Colchester. Historically Wivenhoe village, on the banks of the River Colne, and Wivenhoe Cross, on the higher ground to the north, were two separate settlements but with considerable development in the 19th century the...

, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

. Among their many activities relating to ships such as yacht brokers, auctioneers, and builders, they were especially known for their design of luxury steam and motor yachts.

Cox & King's first naval architect, Joseph Edwin Wilkins, who worked for the firm for some 15 years, designed many of the firm's best known yachts such as Iolanda, Gunilda, Rosabelle, Venetia, and Surf.

Upon Wilkins' departure in 1908, Francis Gordon Pratt, the son of Gustavus Pratt (one of the original owners along with Sidney Depree), took over the design of motor yachts, fast launches and racing motor boats. Pratt raced a number of the latter (especially the Tyreless series) in such places as Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....

 as well as in the United States (Harmsworth Cup
Harmsworth Cup
The Harmsworth Trophy is the popular name of the historically important British International Trophy for Motorboats.The Harmsworth was the first annual international award for motorboat racing. Officially, it is a contest not between boats or individuals but between nations...

).

The demand for luxury yachts after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

was greatly reduced, and the financial crisis of the late 1920s and early 1930s, in addition to various lawsuits, led to the closure of the firm. The last Cox & King entry in Lloyd's was in 1939.

In 1913, Cox & King published a catalogue of their yachts and motor boats.

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