The USSB first placed the ship in service with Pacific Mail Steamship Company for service between San Francisco and Asia with the ship arriving 7 March 1921, second after sister ship "Hawkeye State" operated by Matson Navigation Company arrived on 5 March in what some described as a race from Baltimore, but the company noted was not as "Golden State" made several more port calls on the voyage. By December 1923, the ship, now "President Cleveland", was operating with sailings every 14 days from San Francisco to Honolulu, Japan, China, and the Philippines in a route dubbed "The Sunshine Belt to the Orient" with "President Lincoln", "President Pierce", "President Taft", and "President Wilson". As late as May 1925, the ships were seen as USSB vessels of the California Orient Line operated by Pacific Mail Steamship Company, but the next month those vessels were seen in an advertisement headed "Now serving the transpacific and round-the-world fleets of Dollar Steamship Line.