There must be dozens (or many anyway) of ways to locate information about ship sailings of genealogical significance. Today I used several sources to locate and document a record. They include:
familysearch.org
Ancestry.com
http://www.germanroots.com/ny1847.html
http://www.cyndislist.com/ports-entry/
https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Ellis_Island,_Castle_Garden,_etc.
https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/New_York_Emigration_and_Immigration
The New York Times often listed ship arrivals each day in a column called “Marine Intelligence.” Below is notice of the ship that brought my great-grandparents Elias and Rachel to New York.