The William and Anthony, Official Number 44895, was built at Charlestown Cornwall
in 1862.
She was a brig, of 185 tons register (later 195 tons), 97 ft long by 24 ft beam and was wholly owned by her builder William Luke. [1]
Between the gales, efforts were made to throw cargo overboard to lighten the ship, which was much overladen, and, in addition, the ship was leaking badly and necessitated continuous pumping day and night, which added much to the dangers to which we were exposed, and you can imagine there was but little hope, and I was accustomed, the only passenger, to crawl into my bunk at night with my clothes on, with a ship biscuit in each pocket ready for any emergency and in fact was called one night with the word that the ship was sinking. The vessel was an interesting wreck on arriving in Philadelphia and was visited by many."
The above account is confirmed by the following report in Lloyd's List [3].
"The William & Anthony, Webb, which arrived at Philadelphia, 10th Jan., from Falmouth, encountered very severe westerly gales from the 2nd to the 15th or 20th Dec., and lost boats, bulwarks, watercasks, sails, &c.; the crew commenced throwing cargo overboard on the 2nd Dec., and continued doing so until they were exhausted."
Coincidentally, William Luke her builder and owner died suddenly at his home in Charlestown on 12th December 1871, at the time his ship was fighting for her life in these Atlantic gales.
The William and Anthony returned to UK waters in August 1872, was sold and re-registered at Faversham.[1]
She was re-registered at Folkestone in 1880, finally being sold off the British Register, to Norwegian owners in 1890. [4]
You can read about other Charlestown ships in my Luke of Charlestown page.