I have an unsolved ship mystery in my background. My ggg grandfather, Shubael Swain, was a NYC ship captain who came from Nantucket. By 1803, at least, he was working there as a ship captain. Several old records indicate that he and his brother "died at sea in NY on Jan 10,1808" The research that I did led me to believe this was incorrect, and that he had not died. What I found out from his father's 1812 will was that he did not die but his brother did. He ended up naming his first son after his brother. I have someone in NYC how is supposed to be looking for a possible old article about it, but this person isn't doing it. I do have a theory- I have a 1807 poster copy of a painting of his clipper ship, The Experiment of NY, of which he was the ship master. I recently learned that his son who moved to Cleveland, and family, eventually had the original of the painting which looks like a water color. Anyway, my theory is that since he was a ship master, and one brother had already moved to NYC as a mariner, that he took this ship up to Nantucket to pick up the remaining brother and bring him back to NYC to go into the shipping business. The had a brother who was lost at sea some unknown date. I think that something drastic- what I do not know- happened as they entered the NY harbor. I just found the following article that I think may be of interest to people on the list as it talks about the harbor at that time and why and how it was dangerous. Very interesting article. http://www.yuhsg.org/webpages/hurst/files/Shipwreck%20Lesson.pdf Can someone tell me who actually sailed a ship? Was it the master, or someone else or both? Sue