This yard dates back to 1809, when Amos Nicholson took on his great nephew William Camper, a young London shipwright. Camper took over the yard in 1824 when Amos died. When the 41 ton Breeze won the Kings Cup in 1836 it consolidated Camper’s position and led to him becoming known as “Yachtbuilder to the Royal Yacht Squadron”. William Camper died in 1863 but just before that the yard had become Camper & Nicholson’s. When yachting recovered in the 1920’s the years leading up to World War II marked the heyday of Camper & Nicholsons. The America’s Cup campaigns of 1930, 1934 and 1937 brought international fame with the design and build of Shamrock V, Velsheda, Endeavour and Endeavour II. For all his successes, it is perhaps for these few, fragile, over-rigged and utterly outrageous J class yachts that Charles E. Nicholson is best remembered. Camper and Nicholsons also undertook the alterations and re-rigging of King George V’s yacht, Britannia. It is a tribute to the standard of Camper and Nicholsons’ original build quality that, with the exception of Endeavour II and Britannia, which was not originally built by Camper and Nicholsons and which was scuttled after the King’s death, all of them are still sailing. In spite of racing successes and the production of such high profile boats as the Dragon Bluebottle, the company’s situation was precarious and it received a further blow when the Government’s demand for minesweepers and other small craft dried up in the late 1950’s.
A Dragon Class keelboat, Bluebottle, built by Camper and Nicholson in 1948 with yard number 746, was given to Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip as a wedding present by the Island Sailing Club in Cowes. She was sailed in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, crewed by Graham Mann, Ronald Backus and Jonathan Janson and won Bronze.
As well as Bluebottle, Camper and Nicholson built at least 19 Dragons.
| Country | UK |
| Locations | Gosport, Southampton |
| Years in Operation | 1947-1959 |
| Boats Built | CAN 38 62 GBR 142 143 192 198 199 200 201 203 210 211 215 231 256 271 315 318 USA 72 |