recreation of the ASA flag with the appropriate colors and registration number that Luther would have flown above the deck of Victory
Luther's association with Empire State continued to 1864. By then he was carrying mostly cargo and at least occasionally making stops in Savannah, Georgia; Mobile, Alabama; Genoa, Italy; and Cardiff, Wales. The ship was cleared to sail in May of 1864 with a different master and owner, and it's apparent that he was once again ready for a change. Before he found one of any duration, he was involved in one trip that leaves a few unanswered questions.
The ship Nunquam Dormio was built in the shipyard of Frank C. Moss in Bath, Maine, and had a 948 ton berth. The maiden voyage was on 30 July 1864 with Luther as the captain. Capt. Benjamin J. H. Trask, Jr., was the owner, but what was his connection to Luther? The ship was to sail to St. John, New Brunswick, and later newspaper reports say it went from there to Liverpool. It was involved in a legal disput and was apparently sold while there to a New York consortium in 1865. It arrived back in New York in September 1865 without Luther. He doesn't appear on a passenger list, but return he did, and it must have been by boat.
Luther was given a commission as master of Victory, a 1584 ton ship owned by David Ogden & Co. and made by Currier & Townsend in Newburyport, Massachusetts, with dimensions the same as Empire State. In that year he registered after rigorous testing with a young organization called the American Shipmasters Association of New York. For the last three years of his career he sailed for Ogden's Red Cross Line.
Luther's obituary says that he retired from sea about 1869. The last record of Luther being master of a ship arriving at the port of New York was 25 May 1868, still on Victory. A different master was at the helm that Fall.
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1. Boston Daily Advertiser, 3 Aug 1864.