Series I. Ships' Records contains records documenting the trading activities of vessels from America and Europe to points in West Africa. Many different types of vessels are represented in this collection and their ports of origin range from Salem and Portsmouth to Portugal, Brazil, and England. Hodges Jr. had contact with all of these ships as American Consulate, and frequently engaged in commission business that required the use of such vessels to conduct his personal trade. Several ships, including the schooner First Attempt and the brig Janet Maria, were owned in part by Hodges Jr.

Series I is divided into nine subseries. The first seven subseries, Ironsides (Brig), John (Brig), Oswego (Brig), Robert Patten (Brig), Romp (Brig), Ruby (Brig), and Union (Brig) are individually designated due to the richness of their holdings. Records include those of financial transactions, including bills, disbursements, receipts, sales, and invoices, as well as manifests, cargo records, accounts current, correspondence, and various customs records. The eighth subseries, Other Vessels' Records, contains records of varying quantity for almost 100 different ships that either traded in or travelled through West Africa during Hodges Jr.'s tenure as American Consulate. These records are organized alphabetically by ship's name; the amount of records for each ship varies considerably. Records for these vessels typically include bills, invoices, cargo records, customs forms, and correspondence. The ninth subseries, Account Books, contains bound volumes of sales, disbursements, invoices and accounts current for multiple ships Hodges Jr. dealt with while in Cape Verde.