, built for Chile, as the British HMS
Botha The family had a long tradition of shipbuilding in
Kent, with James White constructing the cutter
Lapwing for the Royal Navy at
Broadstairs in 1763–1764, as well as fast vessels for the Revenue services and fishing smacks, and even a number of West Indiamen. At least three generations of the White family business undertook shipbuilding before Thomas White, (1773–1859) the grandfather of John Samuel White, moved from Broadstairs, to
East Cowes on the northern coast of the
Isle of Wight in 1802, where he acquired the shipbuilding site on the east bank of the
River Medina where there was already more than a century of shipbuilding tradition. In the closing years of the
Napoleonic War he began work on what would become the 'Thetis' Yard across the river on the West bank on the 'salterns' and marsh between the Medina and Arctic roads. It opened officially on 1 October 1815. J. S. White subsequently rebuilt the east bank site which in 1825 became the Falcon Yard. Records indicate that by the 1850s J. S. White's docks with its steam
sawmills and engine shops, and the mast and block shops, provided work for around 500 craftsmen. J Samuel White expanded still further in 1899. It rapidly became a world leader in the design and construction of small- to medium-sized naval and merchant ships, and also built numerous smaller craft, including more than 130 lifeboats for the
RNLI, more than any other builder.
Sir Barnes Wallis, later famous as an aeronautical engineer, worked as a draughtsman for the company at the start of his career, before moving to Vickers to design airships. An expansion of the yard in 1911 led to the purchase of a large 80 ton
hammerhead crane from
Babcock & Wilcox of
Renfrew, Scotland. The crane was installed in 1912 on the Cowes side of the river and still survives, it was last used in 2004, and now
Grade II* listed. At the height of its shipbuilding activities, J. S. White had shipbuilding slipways on the eastern side of the River Medina at East Cowes and fitting-out quays, engineering works and administration offices at Cowes on the western side of the river. In 1922 J. S. White established the 'Island Transport Co. Ltd.' with barges running from Southampton, (and initially Portsmouth) to East Cowes to carry supplies for the shipyards. Any spare capacity was used to carry general, commercial cargo. After the shipyards closed in 1965, the trade was just general cargo. The Island Transport company was sold to the
Red Funnel Group in 1968. At some time, J. S. White acquired the Henry Bannister, rope making business of Cowes. In 1954 J. S. White acquired the shipbuilding business of William Weatherheads at
Cockenzie,
Scotland. the business was carried on under the name 'William Weatherhead & Sons (1954) Ltd' until 1965 when it was renamed 'J. Samuel White (Scotland) Ltd'. In 1961 J. S. White acquired the postcard and greeting-card printing business of
J. Arthur Dixon with production facilities at
Newport, Isle of Wight and at
Inverness, Scotland. The company was sold in 1974 to the
Dickinson Robinson Group. With the regular construction of
turbines,
boilers, steam and
diesel engines, the Cowes site became an engineering works. With the closing of the shipbuilding section in 1965, In 1968 the company received a take-over bid for the whole group of companies from the
Foreign and Colonial Investment Trust; by December 1968 the take-over was complete - at this time it was reported that there were 1000 people employed over the group. In 1971 Foreign and Colonial Investment Trust sold the company to Spectrol Holdings, a UK subsidiary of the Carrier Corporation of
Syracuse, New York. By 1979 the company had been renamed Elliott Turbomachinery Ltd and employed almost 850 people; and the American parent company, the Carrier Corporation, was taken over by another American company,
United Technologies. In 1981 the company finally ceased trading and the sites were closed. "Sammy" White built well over two thousand vessels at their various shipyards at East Cowes between 1803 and their closure in 1963. == Naval vessels ==