To the OP, I just posted on another thread about a resource that might help you find some info about your missing great-grandfather, Captain Edward Maudsley Hockley who sailed in to New York Harbor in 1869 from England and was never heard from again by his 2nd wife back in England.
The site is called
"Old Fulton NY Postcard Website AND New York State Historical Photos & Newspapers".
www.fultonhistory.comIt's a great, free resource not only if you're researching newspapers in New York State, but anywhere including internationally. They might not have a paper for a specific city, but that doesn't mean articles from that city don't get picked-up by other papers. The site owner has scanned over 50,000,000 newspaper pages and he adds thousands more each month.
Last night I did a quick search for Capt. Hockley and came up with 69 records. I read through them quickly and some are just short articles saying he was in a port wherever, but there are some other records I think that may be more relevant and might help put some pieces of the puzzle together. I know you have three Edward Maudsley Hockleys who all sailed in your family so that complicates things a bit.
It takes a while to get used to the site design I referenced above and it's not intuitive in the beginning when you're learning to do searches. There are rare times when accessing the site is slow, but no more so than other sites and those two things aside, it's a great resource.
I haven't found out where he ended up (I'm referring to the EM Hockley born in 1821), but there seem to be references to him fairly regularly after 1869. The RMS China wasn't the only Cunard line vessel or other ship he captained (assuming I'm keeping all three men straight). He also sailed in to other ports like Halifax, Boston and Cork Harbor so maybe if he didn't return to England, he went to Canada or ended up in Boston, Baltimore or another East Coast city. Or perhaps China or Ireland.
You'd originally posted his last voyage from Liverpool to New York was in July 1869. Yesterday I posted that there was a 1 Jun 1870 article from The New York Herald that indicated Captain Hockley and his ship the China arrived in the Port of New York on 31 May 1870. That's what the article said, but when I searched the New York Arriving Passenger Lists for 1869 and 1870 and actually read the completed vessel manifests that list the ship's Master's name, the last crossing for him seems to have been when he arrived in New York on 28 Jul 1869 as you'd thought. After that, John Macauley was consistently listed as the Master on the China's manifests.
You've got a mystery on your hands but it certainly makes it interesting!
Laurel
