The City of New York was a steam barquentine known for being Richard E. Byrd's flagship on his 1928–30 exploration of Antarctica, mistakenly for the rescue of Ernest Shackleton in 1915, and most infamously for claims of being the ship that failed to come to the aid of the Titanic in 1912.

In 1962, the BBC released a television documentary commemorating the 50th anniversary of the sinking, during which they publicised the deathbed statement of Henrik Bergethon Næss.

Næss, who ha been the first officer on the Samson in 1912[5] claimed to have seen mast lights and distress signals on the horizon in the vicinity of the Titanic's sinking during the night of 14 April 1912.

[6] It has been alleged that the Samson, which carried no wireless equipment, had approximately 3,000 pounds of illegally hunted frozen seal meat taken from Canadian waters in her hold, and fearing discovery from the coast guard or boarding by the Royal Navy, chose to ignore the Titanic's distress signals and steam away from the scene.

This story would seem to corroborate testimony given by members of the crew of the SS Californian of their sighting a mystery ship during the disaster.

Although Næss was regarded as "a man of substance and credibility" in his native land, other crewmembers failed to corroborate his story.

He had died in the North Sea on 22 June 1918, the day after his ship, the Eglantine (built in 1866), was torpedoed by German submarine SM U-86.

Despite having made it onto a liferaft with two other survivors of the sinking, Ring did not take the opportunity to confirm or deny the story as he lay dying of his injuries.

[7][10][11] In the crew's defence, critics maintain that the sealer would not have operated anywhere near Cape Hatteras, as Næss initially claimed (although he may simply have made a mistake), since there are no seals there, and which is roughly a thousand miles from the Arctic waters which they inhabit.

It has also not been explained why the crew of the Samson would be concerned about legal issues 500 miles off the coast of Newfoundland in international waters, or what they would have been doing so far out to sea.

[12][13] She is often mistakenly identified as being involved with the rescue of Ernest Shackleton, being confused with the coincidentally named Norwegian steam-powered whale catcher Samson.

It was this other Norwegian Samson, based out of Montevideo, which in 1916 was notable for rounding South Georgia, that retrieved Shackleton's beached whaleboat the James Caird, and rescued his men McNish, McCarthy, and Vincent.

The company operated her out of Sveagruvanin in Svalbard, and once their need for her services declined she lay for a period of time from 1927 to 1928 mothballed at anchor in Gothenburg.

[19][20] She would make an unscheduled stop before tackling the North Atlantic at the Ananias Dekke drydock in Georgernes Verft, Bergen, in April 1928.

William H. Todd had agreed for the work to be done at cost, and the repairs were done under the supervision of Captain Gustav Brown, the master of the "Bolling".

"[citation needed] Byrd had her renamed as the City of New York and her original bell and wheel were engraved with the vessels new name.

Of the thousands of applicants, the winner Paul Siple, an assistant Scoutmaster, turned out to have the added qualification of being a Sea Scout.

However, as he was preparing a fourth attempt, Byrd gave in, and invited him onto the expedition, joining and sailing shortly after his 18th birthday.

[18] In 1944, when she was laid up as a hulk in Quebec, a well known yachtsman Captain Lou Kenedy (1910–1991),[39][40][41] bought her, converting her into a three-masted schooner.

They would eventually be auctioned off along with a ceremonial bell-pull that had been used to ring President Franklin D. Roosevelt on board at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.

Kenedy mainly used her for freighting lumber from Nova Scotia to New England ports in the summer, and trading salt from the Turks and Caicos Islands in the winter.

In the spring of 1952, Kenedy agreed to take his children to the West Indies for an Easter vacation, and she took on a cargo of lumber to defray costs and set forth returning via the Turks for a loading of salt.

Out on the sea, the shaft broke and the family had to tow her using the lifeboat and its small engine, to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia; it took 33 days.

[40] Kenedy would make his last voyage in her in October 1952 carrying 325,000 feet of lumber from Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia to Quincy near Boston.

[40][44] They used her for transporting coal and potatoes between Massachusetts and Prince Edward Island, when yet another shaft broke and a motor vessel the Arctic Sealer was chartered to take her to Lunenburg, for repair.

[40][44] The Yarmouth County Museum has a number of artefacts, including a nameplate with the name "Samson" on one side and the City of New York on the other.