Page 18 - Captain William Strike of Porthleven

Shipowner

The next event in William Strike’s sea-going life was again very significant as he
became a ship owner for the first time, at the age of 41. It appears that Strike was
part of a consortium putting up the funds with which to purchase the schooner ‘Jane’,
a 108 ton schooner with standing bowsprit, built at Garmouth, at the mouth of the
River Spey, on the east coast of Scotland in 1838. According to Jim Skelton, author
of ‘Speybuilt’ (2 nd ed. 1995), the likely cost of construction would have been
approximately £1,100. Log books for the ‘Jane’ appear not to have been preserved
so it is difficult to know the extent of her trades, though her size might suggest that
she was engaged in foreign-going trade as well as in coastwise trade. William Strike
th
was both master and (part) owner with a 12/64 interest in the schooner between
1855 and 1859. Ultimately the ‘Jane’ was sold in April 1860, just two months before
‘Ready Rhino’ was launched into the River Wear at Sunderland.

The ‘Jane’ was 71’ long, with a beam of 20’. During the period when William Strike
and his partners owned the vessel, the ‘Jane’ was registered at Penzance though
records indicate that ownership was formally registered in the name of J.P.Thomas
of Porthleven. The schooner was authorised to trade coastwise, as well as far as
France to the south of Brest, Portugal, Spain outside the Straits of Gibraltar, and the
Azores.

There is no doubt that William Strike served an effective apprenticeship in what was
obviously a very hard way of life, at sea, under sail. His application in 1850 for
certification as a master mariner suggests a man of some education. The log books
still preserved at the National Archives and the Cornwall Record Office provide good
evidence of an ability in reading, writing and arithmetic. It goes without saying that

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