Remembering Ann Davison — The First Woman to Sail the Atlantic

One hundred years ago a new sailor was born into the world. Unbeknownst to anyone at that time, including herself, the newborn Ann Davison would become the first woman to sail the Atlantic singledhanded. Davison’s path to sailing was not simple, nor pre-arranged. Her first husband died as a result of an accident that occurred during the couple’s first ocean sailing experience — a circumstance that would end many sailors’ thoughts of returning to the water. But not Davison. She was determined to carry on and continue sailing.

Davison and her husband Frank had bought the 70-ft ketch Reliance soon after the end of World War II. Frank had sailing experience, Davison was a novice. After being caught in storms in the English Channel, Reliance was wrecked on rocks. They launched their life raft but were continually washed overboard. Frank lost his life, but Davison survived and went on to write about the couple’s experience in her book, Last Voyage. She also bought another boat — a 23-ft wooden sloop named Felicity Ann.

Over two years Davison prepared Felicity Ann and taught herself to sail. More knowledgeable but still largely inexperienced, she cast off from Plymouth, England, on May 18, 1952. On this first voyage she endured storms and challenges, and learned many skills including navigation by sextant. On November 20 she departed the Canary Islands for Antigua. However, a storm pushed her off course and Felicity Ann made landfall in Dominica on January 23, 1953. After spending some time recovering from her voyage, Davison sailed north to Florida and New York via the Intracoastal Waterway, She arrived on November 23, 1953, just a year after her departure from the Canary Islands. Davison, her boat and their voyage were widely celebrated, and she and the boat were invited as featured guests to the New York Boat Show in 1954.

Davison wrote a second book, My Ship Is So Small, in which she shared stories from her Atlantic crossing. Felicity Ann was sold five years after the crossing and shipped to California. Her immediate history is unknown to us, but we believe she was left to languish; another abandoned, old boat, before eventually being discovered by a private buyer.

A restoration attempt was made in Haines, Alaska, during the late 2000s. She was then donated to the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Washington state where she was rebuilt and added to the Community Boat Project fleet. Felicity Ann made her new debut at the 2017 Wooden Boat Festival, and was relaunched on May 1, 2018.

Felicity Ann was was designed by Sid Mashford in 1936. She was built in Cornwall, England, in 1939 under the original name Peter Piper. Her construction was halted during World War II, and in 1949 she was complete and launched with the name Felicity Ann.

Davison made her home in America, remarried, and continued to sail. She died in 1992.