Cowes Maritime Museum

The Museum displays a selection of objects and images which tell the story of Cowes and its maritime heritage. You can see Uffa Fox’s  dinghy, Avenger, and models of vessels built by J. Samuel White & Co Ltd of Cowes.

The Museum has an extensive photographic and paper archive. The archive depicts yachting and the shipbuilding industry in Cowes. The reserve collection is held within the museum store. This is accessible by appointment only. If you require more information about the archive collection please contact the Curator of Human History.

The museum is situated within Cowes Library and is free to enter. The library also houses a collection of maritime-related books and the photographs of William Robert Hogg. Visit our museum collections page for more information about Hogg's photography.

For thousands of years the seas around the island’s coast have been navigated by ships of all sizes and nationalities. Inevitably many ships have been lost and more than 4,000 shipwreck sites appear on the Admiralty's charts.

The Island’s 60mi (97km) of coastline is generally peaceful and calm, but sudden storms and fog have caught many ships unaware. This exhibition tells the story of two of these shipwrecks. The Yarmouth Roads wreck and HMS Pomone.

The Yarmouth Roads Wreck

• The wreck site and the Spanish carrack
• The 16 century bronze gun
• Finds from the Yarmouth Roads Wreck site

HMS Pomone and The Needles

• HMS Pomone - The ship and the striking of Goose Rock
• Discovering the wreck
• The Captain, The Needles, and the lighthouses

HMS Pomone – The Finds

• The ship's structure
• Life on board
• Navigation and weapons

Activity page – fun things to do

• Underwater Exploration

In 1803, Thomas White began to take over shipyards on both sides of the River Medina, at West and East Cowes. Over the following years, Thomas and his sons ran various shipyards, eventually combining them under the name 'J Samuel White' in 1860.

During their history, White's & Co built:

• Naval ships
• floating bridges
• lifeboats
• paddle steamers
• and aircraft.

They even produced ice cream machines and, in the 1950s, created an early form of jet ski, the "ski-ter".

White’s & Co built their last ship in the mid-1960s and in 1981 the yard finally closed.

Read more in our J.S White’s Aircraft production leaflet.

J.S. White’s advertising

Our Heritage service holds a collection of J.S. White’s guard books (bound scrapbooks) containing magazine cuttings of the company’s advertisements from 1942 to 1971. This small selection reveals the different aspects of their design.

To find out more, read our guide on J.S. White's adverts.