THE firm of J, Samuel White & Co., Ltd., of Cowes, has been building ships in the Isle of Wight for more than two and a half centuries. During the greater part of that time the firm has been closely associated with the Life- boat Institution, both when it was known as the Royal National Institu- tion for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck and since its name was chang- ed, a hundred years ago, to that of the Royal National Life-boat Institution.

The founder of the firm was Thomas White (1773 to 1859), who was born at Broadstairs in Kent. He came to Cowes in 1798. Cowes already had a long-standing tradition of shipbuild- ing, for it is recorded that a ship of war was built in Cowes for Queen Elizabeth I in 1588, and one of the earlier Vanguards, a third-rate-line-of- battle-ship of 1,419 tons, 520 men and 68 guns was built in 1748. The Fectis, which carried Florence Nightingale to the Crimea, was constructed in Cowes a century later.

Thomas White purchased Nye's Yard on the river Medina. For many years this yard had supplied whalers and cutters to various private owners of large yachts, and indeed supplied the cutter attached to H.M.S. Bounty in which Captain Bligh made his famous voyage of some 4.000 miles to Timor after the mutiny.

1851 Competition When the Fourth Duke of North- umberland became the Institution's President in 1851 there were 96 life- boat stations, mostly local societies, but many of the boats were not sea- worthy. The Duke therefore decided to offer a prize of one hundred guineas for a new life-boat design. Thomas White sent in his model, which was not successful. It was of the whaler type and was not self-righting.

Thomas White had been supplying this type of life-boat to the P. & O.

Line and the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co., as well as to naval ships. One such life-boat, the Lamb and White, was built in 1846. She was fitted with built-in air cases at either end and along either side. The hull itself was built of two thicknesses of plank with prepared waterproof material interposed, a system of construction that is still used at the present time.

To cope with the work of building such life-boats White's had opened a new workshop called John and Robert's Yard.

Thomas White had preferred great buoyancy and stability to the self- righting properties which were incor- porated in James Beeching's successful model. It is interesting that in 1890 George Watson, the designer of the Britannia and the Watson type of life-boat, reverted to the principle of the non-self-righting type.

One life-boat was built by White's for the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Ship- wreck, for the Cardigan station. She was 24-feet long and her crew, while quite satisfied with her performance, thought she would be better for this station if she were three feet longer, so they sailed her round to Cowes and exchanged her for another boat in which they sailed back home. This new vessel cost £116, which was raised by public subscription.

Life-boats for Madras In 1849 Whites sent life-boats to Madras as they were considered the only boats which could negotiate the surf.

In 1850 WThites' life-boats were specially fitted in H.M. Polar Expedi- tion ships The Enterprise and Investi- gator before they sailed to find Sir John Franklin, and it was in this same year that Thomas White presented the Mary White and the Culmer White to Broadstairs, his birthplace. In 1851 the Mary White with a crew of coast- guards and longshoremen went to help a brig (curiously enough also named Mary White) and saved seven men. About this time too the Margate station ordered a 32-feet life-boat.

During 1852 orders were received for replacements of miscellaneous boats for the Coastguard service and also orders from many life-saving societies.

In The Illustrated London News dated 17th January, 1857, a most moving and interesting account is given of the rescue carried out by the Mary White and the Culmer White life- boats. An American ship named the Northern Belle became a wreck at Kingsgate, off the Kentish coast.

Two Margate luggers went to her assistance but owing to the very rough sea they both foundered with all hands. At this point a message was sent to the life-boat station at Broadstairs asking for assistance. The crew got out the Mary White and pulled her two miles over heavy hilly country, through hail, sleet and snow, reaching Kingsgate at ten o'clock that night.

Nineteen Americans Rescued "At daybreak an awful sight was revealed to those on the cliffs and beach. With the naked eye could be seen twenty-three men lashed to the rigging of the only mast left standing.

At 7.30 a.m. the Mary White was launched with the aid of the watching crowd, ten brave men pulled through the boiling surf and the raging sea and brought back seven of the twenty-three men on the wreck, amidst the cheering people on the beach; meanwhile the Culmer White which had also been brought across country, was manned and launched. She succeeded in bring- ing away fourteen men. The two remaining men were the captain, and the pilot who had been taken on at Dover. The captain declared that he would rather die with his vessel than leave her, and the pilot expressed his desire to remain and perish in the old man's company. After one and a half hours the life-boat for the third time left the shore in order to persuade the two men to save their lives. After much difficulty the crew succeeded in inducing them to come down from the rigging and come ashore. It is im- possible to describe the scene on the beach when it was known that all hands had been saved. At 3 p.m. the Mary White was dragged upon her truck by three horses into Broadstairs.

In the boat sat her gallant crew, and tied to an American oar from the wreck was the American Standard which had been hoisted as a signal of distress.

The tattered Hag fluttered over the broken bows of the Mary White. It was thus that the boat passed through the streets of Broadstairs amidst the joyous shouts of the inhabitants of the town. Nearly all the brave fellows who, at the imminent peril of their own lives were thus engaged in restor- ing to America the lives of nineteen of those seamen of whom she is so justly proud, are married men with large families of small children, and there is not a man amongst them who has not assisted in saving life, and who has not at some period lost a father, brother, or cousin in the same glorious cause." Steam Life-boats Built In 1860 the life-boat station at Poolbeg, Ireland, with a White life- boat was taken over by the Royal National Life-boat Institution.

During the year 1862 Whites received orders for life-boats, cutters and gigs for all H.M. ships on the West African station, and later one life-boat for every ship in H.M. Navy.

Ryde private life-boat station was taken over by the Royal National Life-boat Institution in 1869 and the 8-oared Captain Hans Busk was re- tained. In this same year Whites planned to fit steam engines to life- boats carried on shipboard.

In 1880 they were invited by the Admiralty to incorporate the life-boat principles into steam pinnaces, and a 48-feet by 9-feet 3-inches by 4-feet 9-inches pinnace was built; it was a great success and was ordered by many foreign navies.

In 1898 the Royal National Life- boat Institution ordered two steam life-boats, the James Stevens No. 3 and the James Stevens No. 4 for Grimsby and Padstow, followed in 1900 by the City of Glasgow for the Harwich station.

In all, between the year 1864 and the outbreak of the 1914-18 war the firm of White's had built no less than 368 steam life-boats for its different clients.

For Chile and Belgium After the first world war life-boats for clients other than the Royal National Life-boat Institution were built, including a 43-feet self-righting boat for Chile in 1921, a 67-footer for the Crown Agents in 1926. followed by two more similar boats in 1949-50, and three R.N.L.I. type 46-feet 9-inches boats for Belgium also in 1949-50.

Eight White built life-boats were engaged in the epic of Dunkirk. An R.N.V.R. officer in command of one of them, the Louise Stevens, said: "I took this life-boat across to Dunkirk on two nights. Her performance was a revelation and a delight." The Newhaven, Frinton, Aldeburgh and Hastings life-boats worked in Dunkirk harbour, carrying men to the ships outside. The Mary Scott of South- wold, commanded by an inspector of the Life-boat Service, then serving in the R.N.V.R., made many trips to the beach and rescued over 600 men.

The Jane Holland, of Eastbourne, did wonderful work until she was rammed and sprayed with machine- gun bullets and abandoned. Two days later she was found drifting in the Channel and was brought back to Dover. One of her end-boxes was stove in and she had over 500 bullet holes in her, but she was still afloat and very much buoyant.

Hundredth Boat for Institution Between the two wars Whites built many life-boats for the Royal National Life-boat Institution, but life-boat work was interrupted in 1941 and was not resumed until 1945.

In 1949 the Royal National Life- boat Institution contracted with Whites for a programme of twenty- life-boats, twelve of which have so far been completed. This programme consists of twelve 46-feet 9-inches Watson cabin type boats and eight 52-feet Barnett type, as previously built for the Donaghadee and Holy- head stations, with the modern light alloy superstructures. One of these boats, the 46-feet 9-inches Sir Godfrey Baring, was exhibited at the Festival of Britain and is now at the Clacton- on-Sea station.

In 1951 the firm achieved the remarkable record of building its hundredth boat for the Royal National Life-boat Institution. This was the 52- feet Barnett type life-boat, which is to- day on service at the Aberdeen station..