In 1698, early in the career of John Cruger (the elder), the Mayor of New York from 1739 till his death in 1744), while he was "a mere youth" he was appointed as Supercargo under Captain (see Captain (nautical)) Appel of the Prophet Daniel, to buy slaves for what was by then a regular "slaver" (slave ship) out of New York.
The East India Marine Society (est.1799) of Salem, Massachusetts was "composed of persons who have actually navigated the seas beyond the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn, as masters or supercargoes of vessels belonging to Salem."
Davis sailed for San Francisco, California, around Cape Horn in 1852, and upon arriving, engaged for a brief time as a gold miner, a lumber supercargo surveyor for a coastal steamer, and a purser for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company.
On board the ship was supercargo Willem Janszoon, former captain of the Duyfken, who wrote to the Dutch East India Company in Amsterdam about the discovery of an island during this yoyage.