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 between Japan and Britain deteriorated in 1940, "President Coolidge" helped to evacuate US citizens from Hong Kong. As Japanese aggression expanded, "President Coolidge" took part in evacuations from other parts of east Asia. In 1941 the threat of war increased and the US War Department began to use "President Coolidge" for occasional voyages to Honolulu and Manila. In June 1941 "President Coolidge" became a troopship, reinforcing garrisons in the Pacific. On December 7, 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and on December 19 "President Coolidge" evacuated 125 critically injured naval patients from Hawaii, cared for by three hastily assigned Navy nurses