Is the meaning of these sentences the same?

- "I was anything but safe."
'anything but' doesn't mean 'never'
"But" is not a conjunction here. Instead, it is a preposition that means 'except' and 'apart from'.
So 'anything but' means 'definitely not':
'I was anything but safe' = 'I was not safe' = 'I was unsafe' = 'I was NOTHING but unsafe'


Other examples:
'This problem was anything but easy' = It wasn't easy
'The hotel was anything but cheap' = it wasn't cheap
'I hate fish. I can eat anything except/but fish' = I don't eat fish

- I was never safe':
'never' is an adverb here that is used to emphasise a negative statement instead of 'not'.