On 6 January 1935, "Havana" ran aground on Mantanilla Reef () north of The Bahamas. Although one passenger died of "apoplexy" during the evacuation of the ship, all the passengers were evacuated on the steamers "El Oceano" and "Peten". These two steamers along with United States Coast Guard Cutters and had come to the stricken ship's rescue. The ship had run aground in a well-known shoal area and near a visible marker buoy. The captain, Alfred W. Peterson, was found guilty of an "error in judgement in navigation" by using dead reckoning instead of more precise methods of setting course. The grounding of "Havana" was second of three public relations disasters that befell the Ward Line in a four-month span; the fire and sinking of in September 1934, and the sinking of (chartered to replace the grounded "Havana") on her maiden Ward Line voyage in January 1935, were the other two. After these three incidents, the "Ward Line" name was dropped in favor of the less familiar "Cuba Mail Line" moniker by July 1935.