The Samuel F. Hodge was a steamship built by the Detroit Dry Dock co. in 1881. Her engine was built by S.F. Hodge & co., a prominent builder of ship engines during its time.¹ She was built to be a freighter that would make regular trips between Duluth and Detroit carrying ore, coal, and other materials within her 900-ton capacity compartments.² Throughout her time on the Lakes she changed ownership four times, beginning her time under the owner Eber Ward and valued at $45,000.³

Upon being built, the Samuel F. Hodge had a length of 149.33 feet; width of 30.00 feet; depth of 12.66 feet; and a gross tonnage of 585.62 feet.⁴ She was first captained by Cpt. McCarther on her scheduled runs between Duluth and Cleveland in 1881.⁵

Her first change of ownership was to a Cash P. Taylor in Detroit, Michigan. Cash P. Taylor only had ownership of the Samuel F. Hodge for one year. This was during his time away from working as a Deputy United States Marshal during the second Cleveland administration.⁶ During this time, he was the manager of the Crescent Line and member of the Lake Carrier’s Association.⁷ In 1995, Harry S. Hodge, president of Samuel Hodge & co. came into ownership of the Samuel F. Hodge for one year until it was bought by the final owner, the Farrell Brothers co. of Buffalo in 1896.⁸

During her time in the Great Lakes, she shipped various cargo such as pig-iron, wire, cement, salt and corn. She had been in several accidents throughout her 15 years shipping cargo across ports in the Great Lakes . The first occurred only a few months after her first run. On the evening of June 4th, 1881, the crew of the Samuel F. Hodge were unloading 60 barrels of naphtha at the first stop on their run. While unloading the final barrel, the chains carrying the load snapped and the barrel exploded, the fuel caught on the lard oil lamps and went up in flames. The second mate, Murdoch Rowan, and deckhand, John Lowrie, were badly burned in the accident. All other crew were able to escape and the damage to the ship was minimal.⁹ The rest of the 1880s were mostly quiet for the Hodge, it ran its routes making cargo deliveries as expected with minimal incidents. In 1884 it came to the rescue of the barge Mary Stockton which was carrying lumber. The vessel had been abandoned by its crew and the Hodge brought it into port.¹⁰ 1893 was the start of a long run of incidents with the Hodge until its sinking in 1896. In 1893 it was briefly reported that the Hodge had lost her rudder at Neebish Island and was stuck at the dock until it could be repaired.¹¹ One year later the Hodge was reported to have lost her rudder once again, this time due to heavy wind and waves two miles off Harrisville, Michigan. It had been carrying a load of pig iron set to be delivered to the Cleveland port.¹²

In 1895, two major events occurred involving the Hodge. In May of that year it was bought by the Farrell brothers, butchers from Buffalo who dealt with supplying vessels, Captain Simon O’Day, and Michael Gearing. They bought it for $18,000 and thought it to be a good investment, stating “as she is a light draft boat she can touch at harbors that cannot be made by line boats”.¹³ They had bought the Hodge after it had not been sold with the rest of the Ward Crescent Line to the Union Transit Company (UTC) as the UTC believed it to be too small.¹⁴ Two months after its purchase, the Samuel F. Hodge ran aground on Frying Pan Island while carrying salt and cement. It had to unload 100 tons of its freight before it could be tugged to a dock by the tug Constitution. It had extensive damage to the hull that was repaired in Buffalo.¹⁵ During this time, Simon O'Day remained as captain of the vessel. He gave up the role in August of 1895 to Captain John Cassin when he sold his shares of the boat to the Farrell Brothers.¹⁶ The Samuel F. Hodge made it through the rest of the 1895 season without any major reported incidents.

In its final year 1896, the Samuel F. Hodge went through two major accidents, the second being on its final voyage. In May of 1896, the Samuel F. Hodge was carrying a freight of corn from South Chicago to Port Huron when it ran into trouble. The Samuel F. Hodge was North of Port Huron, around 12 miles off of Thunder Bay Island, when a steam pipe burst. Water quickly began to flood the ship, rising so high that it put out the boiler flames. Additionally, the engine and pumps stopped working. The Lackawanna liner Scranton responded to the captain’s signal for help and towed the Hodge into port. Eventually the tug Ralph took over for the Scranton and tugged the vessel into port while the crew bailed water with buckets.¹⁷ By the time the Hodge made it to port it had sunk down in 14 feet of water. 10,000 bushels of corn were reported to have gotten wet and a diver at the port attempted to stop the leak while the tug Ralph pumped out water.¹⁸

The final voyage of the Samuel F. Hodge was on July 5, 1896. This was its sixth trip on this route from Cleveland, Ohio to Prescott, Ontario having been contracted to carry shipments of wire. On this particular trip it had 600 tons of wire on board.¹⁹ In the early hours of this run a fire started near the boiler and spread quickly before the crew realized what was happening. The crew jumped into the water to avoid the fire. Captain John Preston, of the steamer St. Joseph spotted the fire and quickly headed to the distressed vessel to help. All crew were rescued, including Captain Lewis Elliot and his wife, except for one. Fireman Deeley was on watch at the time of the incident and did not make it off the vessel. He was 28 at the time of his death and was survived by his sister who was living in Jersey City.²⁰ It was presumed that he had been cremated in the fire. Crew on the St Joseph attempted to put the fire out on the flaming vessel for over an hour to no avail. Captain John Preston made the decision to leave the vessel as the St. Joseph was getting badly scorched in the rescue attempt.²¹ The ship was valued at $25,000 and insured for $18,000. The cargo was insured and valued at $7,000. It was reported that before it’s sinking the ship was paid off and had brought in a considerable sum of money to the Farrell Brothers.