An early postcard view of the Maine Steam Ship Company's coastal steamer, "Horatio Hall," based out of Portland, Maine. Built in 1897/1898 in Pennsylvania, the Horatio Hall was intended for coastal freight and passenger service between Portland and New York. The steel-hulled steamer was 296 feet in length, 46' beam, 17' draft, with a gross tonnage of 3,167, and was capable of maintaining a speed of 17 knots. Her two upper decks held 135 passenger staterooms, and the ship ordinarily carried a crew of 55.

On March 10, 1909, the Horatio Hall was bound from Portland to NY with 400 tons of cargo and a compliment of about 40 crew members and 5 passengers, when it encountered dense fog off Cape Cod. Entering Pollack Rip Channel, the Horatio Hall was rammed by the freighter, H.F. Dimock, whose bow sliced 15-20 feet into the Hall's port side. The captain of the Dimock kept the two vessels together long enough to evacuate most of the Hall's passengers and crew, in the process pushing the Hall into shallower water where it sank on the shoals 30 minutes later. Rescue surfboats from the Orleans Life Saving Station came to the aid of the Dimock, transferring the passengers and crew to shore before the freighter was beached to prevent sinking - no lives were lost on either vessel. The Horatio Hall was declared a total loss, and was blown up as a menace to navigation. The H.F. Dimock was repaired and towed to port, where authorities considered declaring the freighter itself a menace to navigation, as the Dimock had rammed and sunk another vessel near the same spot, some 16 years earlier.