1870s
Ohio's first few months of service proved eventful. The winter of 1873-74 was particularly bad on the Atlantic, and on a late winter voyage to Liverpool, Ohio lost two lifeboats, while her after wheelhouse was damaged beyond repair by the waves. During a March crossing to Philadelphia, the ship was so battered by heavy seas that she suffered damage to her bow. In May, some of Ohio's cargo caught fire between Liverpool and Queenstown. After the fire was extinguished, the ship resumed her voyage to Liverpool, but the cargo caught fire a second time, and was only finally extinguished by a combination of battening the hatches to starve the flames of oxygen and the use of steam pumps. In February of the same year, the wooden bridge of Ohio's sister ship Pennsylvania was torn from the vessel in a hurricane, and a new iron bridge was subsequently installed on all four of the Pennsylvania class vessels.
In 1875, a decision was made to increase the first class complement of all Pennsylvania class vessels from 75 to 100.
Read more about this topic: SS Ohio (1872), Service History