Robb White - Their Virgin Island

Their Virgin Island

In 1937, White married Rosalie "Rodie" Mason. The couple settled in Sea Cows Bay on the island of Tortola, where the insects were so severe that White put his typewriter in a boat and wrote in the middle of the bay each day. The pair spent weeks sailing daily throughout the islands in search of a more suitable home.

One afternoon, after landing on what they thought was large and better-known Great Camanoe, White walked off in one direction along the beach and Rodie in the other. Meeting less than half an hour later, they realized they had landed on a tiny island, 8-acre (3.2 ha) Marina Cay, which they quickly purchased for US$60.

The Whites spent three years on Marina, hacking a cistern out of the rough, rocky land and shipping in enough concrete to build a small, sturdy house. These adventurous years —during which the couple weathered a typhoon, fended off a randy Nazi skipper, aided Jewish refugees, and survived a surprise a visit from White's mother-in-law —are detailed in his memoirs In Privateer's Bay (1939), Our Virgin Island (1953), and Two on the Isle (1985).

White was recalled to military duty when World War II broke out; he flew as a pilot, fought near his birthplace in the Battle of Leyte Gulf (1944), and served on battleships, submarines, and aircraft carriers. He earned eight medals and retired with the rank of lieutenant commander after five years of service.

At the same time as White's recall, he and Rodie lost Marina Cay. The British government had never issued them a license to hold the land and now formally refused, stating that White's published writings had misrepresented conditions in the British Virgin Islands.

Today, the house Robb and Rodie built serves as the reading lounge for a modest-sized resort on the island.