He resigned from the Admiralty in April 1883 and joined Sir William Armstrong's company as designer and manager of their warship construction.

He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1901 following criticism in Parliament for the near-capsizing of the Royal Yacht, the Victoria and Albert, which had happened when she was floated out of the graving dock where she was being fitted out on 3 July 1900.

Although it exonerated him from direct responsibility, the Admiralty blamed him for "not sufficiently impressing upon your subordinates the novelty and importance of the task entrusted to them".

He submitted his last design for a battleship, the King Edward VII class, in April 1901, but he was ill and constantly worried about trivial matters, unable to delegate even the most minor decision.

White was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June 1888[2] He was conferred with Honorary Membership of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland in 1894.