J. Samuel White

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Advert from 1923
Mine-layer HMS Abdiel , largest new building by J. Samuel White

The company J. Samuel White was a British shipyard and machine factory in Cowes , which bore the name of its boss John Samuel White (1838-1915). The company became known as a manufacturer of torpedo boats and destroyers at the end of the 19th century. It supplied the British Royal Navy from 1886 and also exported some boats. In 1965 the last new warship was built there. In addition to manufacturing smaller warships, the shipyard was also the manufacturer of most of the British lifeboats. In 1981 the company was closed.

history

The White family was a well-known shipbuilding family in Kent. The grandfather of John Samuel White, Thomas White (1773-1859), moved his business from Broadstairs to East Cowes on the north coast of the Isle of Wight in 1802 , where he acquired a shipbuilding site on the east bank of the River Medina with a tradition going back 100 years. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, he also acquired land on the opposite bank and opened the “Thetis” shipyard there on October 1, 1815. The older part on the east side was then modernized and was named "Falcon Yard" in 1925.
The manufacture of steam-powered ships began around 1850 and the White company had around 500 employees. In 1899 the company was significantly rebuilt and enlarged. The company constructed small naval and merchant ships and a variety of smaller boats. So he became the main supplier of British lifeboats . In addition, however, ship propulsion systems were also built, in particular steam turbines , later also ship diesel (White two-stroke engines , license MAN ), water tube boilers of the White-Forster type and other pieces of equipment. In 1914 the company had 1,800 employees, at the end of the war 4,500 employees. The number of new buildings decreased between the wars and then increased again significantly during the Second World War , although the company was bombed several times. On the night of May 4, 1942 , the German air force attacked the shipyard where the Polish destroyer ORP Błyskawica was currently located. This left the harbor, then anchored and defended his shipyard, with additional ammunition brought in from Portsmouth . 800 people were injured, over a thousand buildings damaged and around 10,000 m² of the shipyard area was destroyed.

In 1965 the last new building for the Royal Navy was launched at J.Samuel White. In 1981 the company was dissolved.

Construction of torpedo boats and destroyers

In 1885 the White company built the Swift as a "torpedo boat catcher". It was larger than the torpedo boats of the specialized British shipyards Thornycroft and Yarrow . It did not reach their speed, but a different shape of the ship gave it considerably better maneuverability and with six 47 mm rapid-fire cannons and three torpedo tubes it was considerably more powerful and should be able to repel attacking torpedo boats. The Royal Navy was looking for ways to defend itself against torpedo boats and acquired the boat, which came into service as Torpedo Boat No 81 .

The Navy developed the type further to the torpedo cannon boat , of which several classes were procured, but proved to be inadequate. White built a similar boat with the Sea Serpent in 1887/1888 , but it did not find a buyer. Finally it was bought by the Armstrong company in Elswick in 1894 and completed for China as the destroyer Fei Ting .

The little destroyer of cricket

J. Samuel White received orders for torpedo boats from the Royal Navy from 1885 and delivered 27 boats in five series by 1908. The last twelve torpedo boats belonged to the total of 36 boats of the cricket class from 261 to 283 ts, 26 kn, 2 × 12 pdr guns and 3 × 18 "torpedo tubes as well as a 35 man crew, which was built from 1906 to 1909. The first twelve were designated as coastal destroyers in 1906 and, like the five boats built by White, named Cricket, Dragonfly, Firefly, Sandfly and Spider after insects, were then reclassified to torpedo boats and designated TB 1 to TB 5. The later ones White boats became TB 13 to TB 16 (1907) and TB 25 to TB 28 (1908)
All of the torpedo boats built by White were still in existence at the beginning of the World War, three were lost to collisions during the war, the rest were lost after the war canceled.

The first White destroyer Conflict

For torpedo boat defense, the Royal Navy decided in the early nineties for the "torpedo boat destroyer" based on the Havock prototype built by Yarrow , which was ordered in large numbers. White was also involved and manufactured the three destroyers of the Conflict class (320 ts, White-Forster-Kessel, 4500 HP, 27 kn, 1 × 12pdr, 2 × TR) in the years 1894 and 1895.
From 1905 the shipyard was in usually the contractor of two to three destroyers of the new destroyer classes and built twelve more destroyers for the Royal Navy by the start of the war:

The Botha of the Almirante Lynch class planned for Chile

In 1912 White also won an important export contract with the construction of six large destroyers (1430 ts, 31 kn) of the Almirante Lynch class for Chile . The first two boats could be delivered before the war began. The other four were taken over by the Royal Navy as the Faulknor class and proved themselves in the war effort. The Tipperary sank in the Battle of the Skagerrak ; the three surviving boats were sold again to Chile after the end of the war.

See also

Buildings in the First World War

During the First World War , White not only completed the aforementioned boats, but also two peace orders for the L-class and over 20 destroyers of various classes, but also escort vehicles and two submarines (HMS E 32 and F 2 ).

More warship buildings

The Argentine destroyer Tucumán

In the years up to the Second World War , other destroyers for the Royal Navy followed. Initially, some war missions were completed, such as the HMS Wolverine (1120 ts) , which entered service in 1924 . From the end of the twenties there were new developments such as the HMS Kempenfelt (1390 ts, later HMCS Assiniboine ) from 1932, the HMS Forester and Fury (1405 ts) from 1935, Intrepid and Impulsive (1370 ts) from 1937, Jersey and Kingston (1690 ts ) from 1939. In addition, other vehicles, some sloops like HMS Bittern (1190 ts) and Egret (1200 ts) and even a river gunboat were built. The company received export orders from Argentina as early as 1927 for three destroyers of the Mendoza class (1595 ts, 36 kn, 1928/29) . This was followed by orders for two destroyers from Poland ( Grom and Błyskawica , 1975 ts, 39 kn, 1937) and Brazil, which were no longer delivered there due to the war and were sold as HMS Havant and Havelock (1340 ts) in the winter of 1939/1940 came to the service of the Royal Navy.

The largest ship commissioned during this period was the 2650 ts large mine-layer HMS Abdiel , which was not completed until 1941 and remained the largest warship built by J. Samuel White.
During the war, the partly heavily bombed shipyard built thirteen fleet destroyers of the war building program and ten destroyers escort of the Hunt class , of which the HMS Eggesford, completed in 1943, came into service with the German Navy in 1959 as the school frigate Brommy . White also built some motor torpedo boats and landing craft.

Warship building after 1945

The Type 14 frigate Exmouth

In the post-war period, the Dainty (2,830 ts, 30 kn) of the Daring class was launched in 1950 as the last destroyer for the Royal Navy. For this purpose, some fleet destroyers were converted into anti-submarine frigates in Cowes. J.Samuel White also built minesweepers and speedboats and was involved in the construction of new frigates of all post-war types. Export orders concerned the modernization of two destroyers in anti-submarine frigates for Egypt and Pakistan , and two destroyers escort for Ecuador . In addition, three new minesweepers were delivered to France and two new type 14 frigates were built for India in addition to the construction of three ships of this type for the Royal Navy.

Last Exportbau was the 1959 spilled from the deck frigate Taranaki the Rothesay class . The last warship to be built was the Leander- class Arethusa in 1965 . Since 1803, the White shipyards in Cowes had built over 2,000 vehicles.

Museum ships

The museum ship Cavalier
The museum ship Blyskawica

Two destroyers built by J.Samuel White have been preserved as museum ships:

the Polish Błyskawica in Gdynia, completed in 1937, as the oldest surviving destroyer in the world in a heavily modernized form and the British Cavalier in Chatham (Kent), completed in 1944, as the only surviving British naval destroyer of the Second World War and a memorial to 142 destroyers of the Royal Navy who died in the Second World War I sank, and the 11,000 men who died on British destroyers.

Aircraft production

Short 184

Between 1912 and 1916, J.Samuel White also had an aircraft division that built a number of seaplanes under the name of Wight Aircraft . In 1913 the company developed a flying boat, which was presented at the London Air Show at Olympia. The in-house developments Wight Pusher Seaplane, Wight Twin, Wight Seaplane and Wight Converted Seaplane were built in small series as float planes . There were also two test samples of the AD Seaplane Type 1000 , a three-engine Seeflugzeugvariante the Handley Page Type O . On behalf of the Royal Naval Air Service, the single-seater reconnaissance flying boat N14 Wight Baby , a three -decker that flew for the first time in June 1917, but did not satisfy. A planned double-decker variant N15 was not built. In 1916 White also built a four-decker Scout N456 as a prototype , which remained an unsatisfactory experiment.
The company built 110 Short 184 machines in series under license from the Short Brothers company .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Preston, pp. 8f.
  2. ↑ Brook, p. 170, 401 tn.l., 208.75 ft, up to 21.45 kn, 2 × 95 mm cannons, 4 × 3pdr, 5 × 14 "torpedo tubes, delivered in 1895
  3. ↑ WW1 British Destroyers No. 7
  4. ↑ Jane's torpedo boats 1919
  5. ^ Patrol boats
    Converted Patrol boats Jane´s 1919
  6. ↑ Flying Boats of the Solent, Norman Hull. ISBN 1-85794-161-6
  7. ^ Wight Pusher Seaplane first flight April 8, 1914, 11 machines built, including three for the Imperial Navy , which were confiscated when the war broke out
  8. ↑ Wight Twin first flight July 1915, 4 twin-hull machines built, including a land version for France
  9. ^ Lewis, Bomber, p. 58, Crash of the agricultural machine in September 1915 before delivery
  10. ^ Wight Seaplane first flight in 1915, 52 machines built, inferior to the Short 184, which was later built under license
  11. ^ Lewis, Bomber, p. 54
  12. ^ Lewis, Bomber, pp. 81f. with drawing
  13. ↑ Wight Converted Seaplane First flight in 1916, developed from the non-produced Wight Bomber prototype N501 , built 37 machines
  14. ↑ Lewis, Bomber, pp. 48f.
  15. ↑ London, p. 39
  16. ↑ Lewis, Fighter, pp. 97f.

literature

  • Peter Brooke: Warships for Export: Armstrong Warships 1867-1927. World Ship Society, Gravesend 1999, ISBN 0-905617-89-4 .
  • Roger Chesneau, Eugène M. Koleśnik, NJM Campbell: Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Md. 1979, ISBN 0-85177-133-5 .
  • Maurice Cocker: Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893-1981 , Ian Allan, 1983, ISBN 0-7110-1075-7
  • Peter Lewis: The British Fighter since 1912, Putnam, London (1979), ISBN 0-370-10049-2
  • Peter Lewis: The British Bomber since 1914, Putnam, London (1980), ISBN 0-370-30265-6
  • Peter London: British Flying Boats , The History Press, Stroud (2011), ISBN 978-0-7524-60550
  • Anthony Preston: Destroyers , Bison Books, 1977, ISBN 0-86124-057-X
  • David L. Williams: White's of Cowes , Silver Link Publishing, 1993, ISBN 1-85794-011-3 .

Web links

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