Commissioned 1844 by Henry S. Mulligan;[1] possibly sold to James Brown [1791-1877], New York.[2] Private collection; (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York); sold 19 May 2003 to NGA. [1] A letter of 2 April 1844 from Henry S. Mulligan to Asher B. Durand reads in part: "I enclose my check for three hundred and fifty dollars, the price of your beautiful painting of "the stranded ship" now adorning a room at my house. Allow me here to express the entire satisfaction with which myself and family regard it, and the great pleasure I take in subscribing myself the friend of the gifted Artist." (A.B. Durand Papers, Manuscript Division, New York Public Library; quoted in David B. Lawall, _Asher B. Durand: A Documentary Catalogue of the Narrative and Landscape Paintings_, New York and London, 1978: 44, no. 90.) [2] Lawall 1978: 45, no. 91. A list of some of Durand's principal works, published in an 1854 article, includes "The Stranded Ship, in possession of James Brown, N.Y." (E. Anna Lewis, "Art and Artists of America. Asher Brown Durand," _Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature and Art_ XLV, no. 4 (October 1854): 321).