SS President Coolidge motors ranged from a tenth horsepower to the 13,250 horsepower main motors. The ship had refrigerated cargo space. "President Coolidge" was initially designed for 350 first class, 150 "special" or intermediate class passengers with space for 1,260 passengers of all classes and a crew of 300. The ship was launched on 21 February 1931 after Mrs. Calvin C. Coolidge broke a bottle of water that came from a brook on the Coolidge farm in Vermont on the bow. "President Hoover" and "President Coolidge" ran between San Francisco and Manila via Kobe and Shanghai, and some round the World voyages that
SS President Coolidge transshipment beyond Australia, were the officers, known as the "Remember Pearl Harbor" (RPH) Group, selected to form the staff of the US Army Forces in Australia (USAFIA) as the command structure for what was to be the Southwest Pacific Area was evolving. "President Coolidge" performed these military duties in her pre-war civilian condition. Only in 1942 was she properly converted into a troopship. Many of her civilian fittings were either removed for safe keeping or boarded over for their protection. Her accommodation was reorganised to provide capacity for 5,000 troops. Guns were mounted on her, she was painted haze gray