“I mean, he epitomizes what it takes to be a successful oarsman or oarswoman.”

The oil on canvas shows an oarsman in a top hat rowing his skiff on languid waters.

The oarsmen felt ropes of kelp fouling their strokes with each pull.

Meanwhile, just north of Richmond Hill, near present-day Wall Street, Hamilton was boarding a small skiff with two oarsmen, his physician, Dr. David Hosack, and his own loyal associate Nathaniel Pendleton.

Their fate wasn’t discovered until 1808, when the captain of an American merchant ship anchored just off Pitcairn Island heard a local oarsman speaking “crisp and proper English.”