SS Dakotan SS " Dakotan was a cargo ship built in 1912 for the American - Hawaiian Steamship Company that served as a transport ship under the United States Army in World War I , and then was transferred to the Soviet Union under Lend - Lease in World War II before being finally scrapped in 1969 . During World War I , she was taken over by the United States Army as USAT " Dakotan . Near the end of that war she was transferred to the United States Navy and commissioned as USS " Dakotan " ( ID - 3882 ) . During World War II , the ship was transferred to the Soviet Union and renamed SS " Zyrianin ( or Зырянин " in Cyrillic ) . " Dakotan " was built by the Maryland Steel Company as one of eight sister ships for the American - Hawaiian Steamship Company , and was employed in inter - coastal service via the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the Panama Canal after it opened . During World War I , as USAT " Dakotan " , the ship carried cargo and animals to France . " Dakotan " was in the first American convoy to sail to France after the United States entered the war in April 1917 . In Navy service , USS " Dakotan " carried cargo to France and returned over 8 , 800 American troops after the Armistice . After her Navy service ended in 1919 , she was returned to her original owners and resumed relatively uneventful cargo service over the next twenty years . " Dakotan " ran aground off the coast of Mexico in 1923 but was freed and towed to port for repairs . Early in World War II , the ship was requisitioned by the War Shipping Administration and transferred to the Soviet Union under the terms of Lend - Lease in December 1942 . Sailing as SS " Zyrianin " , the ship remained a part of the Soviet merchant fleet into the late 1960s . Design and construction . In September 1911 , the American - Hawaiian Steamship Company placed an order with the Maryland Steel Company of Sparrows Point , Maryland , for four new cargo ships — , " Dakotan " , , and . The contract cost of the ships was set at the construction cost plus an 8 % profit for Maryland Steel , but with a maximum cost of $ 640 , 000 per ship . The construction was financed by Maryland Steel with a credit plan that called for a 5 % down payment in cash with nine monthly installments for the balance . The deal had provisions that allowed some of the nine installments to be converted into longer - term notes or mortgages . The final cost of " Dakotan " , including financing costs , was $ 66 . 00 per deadweight ton , which totaled just under $ 672 , 000 . " Dakotan " ( Maryland Steel yard no . 125 ) was the second ship built under the original contract . She was launched on 10 August 1912 , and delivered to American - Hawaiian in November . " Dakotan " was , and was in length and abeam . She had a deadweight tonnage of and a storage capacity of . A single steam engine with oil - fired boilers driving a single screw propeller provided her power ; her speed was . The steamer had accommodations for 18 officers , 40 crewmen , and could carry up to 16 passengers . Early career . When " Dakotan " began sailing for American - Hawaiian , the company shipped cargo from East Coast ports via the Tehuantepec Route to West Coast ports and Hawaii , and vice versa . Shipments on the Tehuantepec Route arrived at Mexican ports — Salina Cruz , Oaxaca , for eastbound cargo , and Coatzacoalcos for westbound cargo — and traversed the Isthmus of Tehuantepec on the Tehuantepec National Railway . Eastbound shipments were primarily sugar and pineapple from Hawaii , while westbound cargoes were general in nature . " Dakotan " sailed in this service on the east side of North America . At the time of the United States occupation of Veracruz on 21 April 1914 , " Dakotan " was in port at Coatzacoalcos . There she loaded 127 American refugees from sugar plantations in the area and steamed to Veracruz . As a consequence of the American action , the Huerta - led Mexican government closed the Tehuantepec National Railway to American shipping . In early May , " The New York Times " reported that " Dakotan " had sailed to Cristóbal to pick up a cargo of sugar that had been originally slated for transport via Tehuantepec . According to the article , the sugar was to be carried on barges through the still - unopened Panama Canal , then loaded onto " Dakotan " . There was no indication in the newspaper whether this mission was completed or not , but it is known that American - Hawaii returned to its historic route of sailing cargo around South America via the Straits of Magellan after Tehuantepec was closed but before the canal opened . With the opening of the Panama Canal on 15 August , American - Hawaiian ships switched to using the canal . In early September , American - Hawaiian announced that " Dakotan " would sail on a route from New York via the canal to San Francisco and on to either Seattle or Tacoma . When landslides closed the canal in October 1915 , all American - Hawaiian ships , including " Dakotan " , returned to the Straits of Magellan route . In 1916 , " Dakotan " was one of several American - Hawaiian cargo ships chartered by the DuPont Nitrate Company to carry sodium nitrate from Chile to the United States . " Dakotan " and the other cargo ships in this South American service would typically deliver loads of coal , gasoline , or steel in exchange for the sodium nitrate . In May , " The Christian Science Monitor " reported on what may have been a typical delivery for " Dakotan " . The ship had left Tocopilla with 91 , 872 bags — about — of sodium nitrate for use in making explosives , and , after transiting the newly reopened Panama Canal , arrived in Philadelphia . World War I . After the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917 , the United States Army , needing transports to move its men and materiel to France , convened a select committee of shipping executives who pored over registries of American shipping to evaluate transport capabilities . The committee selected " Dakotan " , her sister ship " Montanan " , and twelve other American - flagged ships that were sufficiently fast , could carry enough fuel in their bunkers for transatlantic crossings , and , most importantly , were in port or not far at sea . After " Dakotan " discharged her last load of cargo , she was officially handed over to the Army on 29 May . Before troop transportation began , all of the ships were hastily refitted . Of the fourteen ships , four , including " Dakotan " and " Montanan " , were designated to carry animals and cargo ; the other ten were designated to carry human passengers . Ramps and stalls were built on the four ships chosen to carry animals . Gun platforms were installed on each ship before it docked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard , where the guns were put in place . All the ships were manned by merchant officers and crews but carried military personnel : two U . S . Navy officers , Navy gun crews , quartermaster s , signalmen , and wireless operators . The senior Navy officer on board would take control if a ship came under attack . The American convoy carrying the first units of the American Expeditionary Force was separated into four groups ; " Dakotan " was in the fourth group with her sister ship " Montanan " , Army transports and , and accompanied by the group ' s escorts : cruiser , U . S . Navy transport , and destroyer s , , and . " Dakotan " departed with her group on the morning of 17 June for Brest , France , steaming at an pace . A thwarted submarine attack on the first convoy group , and reports of heavy submarine activity off of Brest resulted in a change in the convoy ' s destination to Saint - Nazaire . " Dakotan " departed Saint - Nazaire on 14 July in the company of her convoy mates " El Occidente " , " Montanan " , and " Edward Luckenbach " . Joining the return trip were Army transport , Navy armed collier , Navy oiler , and cruiser , the flagship of Rear Admiral Albert Gleaves , the head of the Navy ' s Cruiser and Transport Force . Sources do not reveal " Dakotan " s movements over the next months , but on 6 September 1917 , the Naval Armed Guard smen aboard " Dakotan " shelled a German submarine after its periscope had been sighted . On 29 January 1919 , " Dakotan " was transferred to the Navy and commissioned the same day , with Lieutenant Commander J . Simmons , , in command . Outfitted for service as a troop transport to return American servicemen from Europe , " Dakotan " made five transatlantic roundtrips to France as part of the Navy ' s Cruiser and Transport Force between 15 February and 20 July . Eastbound journeys delivered cargo to Saint - Nazaire and Bordeaux for the Army of Occupation ; westbound trips returned soldiers to the United States . " Dakotan " carried a total of 8 , 812 troops on her five westbound voyages . " Dakotan " returned from her final voyage on 20 July , was decommissioned at New York on 31 July , and returned to American - Hawaiian the same day . Interwar years . " Dakotan " resumed cargo service with American - Hawaiian after her return from World War I service . Although the company had abandoned its original Hawaiian sugar routes , " Dakotan " continued inter - coastal service through the Panama Canal in a relatively uneventful manner over the next twenty years . One incident of note occurred on 20 August 1923 when " Dakotan " issued distress call s after she ran aground at Cabo San Lázaro on the Pacific coast of Mexico . The Navy transport ship and the Standard Oil tanker " Charles Pratt " responded to " Dakotan " s calls . " Charles Pratt " successfully freed " Dakotan " , which had suffered damage to her rudder post in the accident . The American - Hawaiian ship " Nevadan " arrived and towed " Dakotan " to Los Angeles for repairs . In 1933 , two members of " Dakotan " s crew had medical emergencies that received news coverage . The first , in February , involved a seaman with an abdominal disorder . He was transferred from the eastbound " Dakotan " to the Dollar Line ocean liner which carried him to Los Angeles to receive medical attention . The second occurred in July when " Dakotan " s quartermaster came down with appendicitis near Balboa . Radio calls for assistance brought the U . S . Navy ' s Destroyer Division 7 to " Dakotan " s aid . The destroyer unit ' s medical officer boarded " Dakotan " and performed an appendectomy on the man , who was too ill to be moved off the ship . World War II and later career . After the United States entered World War II , in 1941 - though most of Europe had been involved since summer 1939 - " Dakotan " was requisitioned by the War Shipping Administration ( WSA ) , but continued to be operated by American - Hawaiian . In December 1942 , " Dakotan " was transferred to the Soviet Union under Lend - Lease , and renamed " Zyrianin " ( " Зырянин " ) . Throughout the rest of the war , " Dakotan " made at least one trip to the United States , being photographed in port at San Francisco in August 1943 . Near the end of World War II , the WSA offered a payment of $ 670 , 210 to American - Hawaiian for the former " Dakotan " as part of a $ 7 . 2 million settlement for eleven American - Hawaiian ships that had been requisitioned by the WSA . " Zyrianin " remained a part of the Soviet merchant fleet through the 1960s , and was listed in " Lloyd ' s Register " until the 1970 – 71 edition . " Zyrianin " was operated by the Far East Shipping Company ( ) from 1943 to 1957 . From 1957 , she was operated by the Black Sea Shipping Company . The ship was written off and scrapped at Split , Yugoslavia in 1969 .