Vessel Particulars
So you're emigrating...
Emigration was undertaken for all sorts of reasons but once the decision to travel was made there were established companies ready to facilitate the journey. Arthur Willis had been amongst the foremost specialising in conveying people to New Zealand for about ten years, he was a ship broker, charterer, owner and insurance purveyor. Working with his sons, and his business partner Amos Gann, he created a one stop shop for all an emigrants’ needs. He was listed as the author of “The New Zealand Handbook or Emigrants Bradshaw”, the seminal guide of the day for potential emigrants. Upon the back page of this somewhat self-serving booklet was an advertisement for their own line of ships, boasting of carrying over “three fourths of the private and a large portion of the public, Emigration to New Zealand”. The whole booklet is nonetheless full of practical advice, such as; where best to settle depending upon your occupation, what farm equipment to bring with you, etc., even down to the minutia of how many sets of underwear might be needed.
Launched in July 1854, the Josephine Willis was built by the firm, Henry Fletcher, Son and Fearnall at Union Dock in Poplar, London. She was built specifically for the emigrant trade to New Zealand in a partnership with Willis, Gann and Co. Constructed as a larger sister ship along the same lines of their earlier joint venture, the Joseph Fletcher (launched March 20th 1852), the Josephine Willis was according to their respective Lloyd’s Register Surveys some 20ft longer. She was probably named for the wife of Henry Hinckley Willis, Sarah Josephine, who apparently (1851 census) went by her middle name, hence the “Josephine Willis”.
Select an option below to find out more about how the ship was built.