Robert Lancing Finger was the Chief Engineer of the steamship Evening Star and was one of 17 of the 270 persons on board who survived. His brother Coenrad was also aboard, but did not survive. The Evening Star sank in a hurricane off the coast of Georgia, 185 miiles east of Tybee, in 1866. The ship was en route from New York to New Orleans.

Robert A. Finger, of Saugerties, died on Monday morning last, at 6 o'clock, from injuries received, it is supposed at the foundering of the steamship Evening Star, of which he was Chief Engineer. - The "Recorder" Cold Springs, New York c. May 2, 1874