USAT Buford USAT " Buford was a combination cargo / passenger ship , originally launched in 1890 as the SS " Mississippi . She was purchased by the US Army in 1898 for transport duty in the Spanish - American War . In 1919 , she was briefly transferred to the US Navy , commissioned as the USS " Buford " ( ID 3818 ) , to repatriate troops home after World War I , and then later that year returned to the Army . In December 1919 , nicknamed the " Soviet Ark " ( or the " Red Ark " ) by the press of the day , the Buford was used by the U . S . Department of Justice and Department of Labor to deport 249 non - citizens to Russia from the United States because of their alleged anarchist , syndicalist , or communist political beliefs . She was sold to private interests in 1923 , contracted in mid - 1924 to be the set for Buster Keaton ' s silent film The Navigator , and finally scrapped in 1929 . Ship ' s history . The ship began life as the SS " Mississippi " , constructed by Harland & Wolff of Belfast , Ireland for Bernard N . Baker of Baltimore and the Atlantic Transport Line . While under de facto American ownership , she would fly the British flag , due to the economies of the navigation laws of the period . The " Mississippi " was launched on August 29 , 1890 and began her maiden voyage , from London , on October 28 , 1890 . In command was her first captain , Hamilton Murrell , " Hero of the " Danmark " Disaster , " who a year earlier had saved 735 lives from the sinking Danish passenger ship " Danmark " , the largest single rescue at the time . For the first year of her career , the " Mississippi " plied the waters between London , Swansea , Philadelphia and Baltimore . In January , 1892 , the " Mississippi " was moved to the London - New York route , where she remained until she was purchased by the U . S . Army Quartermaster Department as part of a seven ship deal on June 24 , 1898 and became an army transport ship , serving in the Spanish American War . The " Mississippi " was assigned the number " 25 " on July 5 , 1898 . However , she sailed under her given name until March 2 , 1899 , the following year , when she was officially renamed the USAT " Buford " , in honor of Gen . John T . Buford , the Union cavalry officer and hero of the Battle of Gettysburg of the American Civil War . On May 28 , 1900 , the " Buford " entered the naval yards of the Newport News Ship - Building Company for a major refitting as a troop - ship for service between the United States and the Philippines . Two of her original four masts were removed ; the other two were replaced with long masts . Once back in service , the " Buford " regularly sailed from San Francisco to Honolulu and Guam terminating in Manila , and returning via Nagasaki and Honolulu . At 5 : 12 a . m . on Wednesday , April 18 , 1906 , the " Buford " was in San Francisco when the Great Quake of 1906 struck . She was taken from the pier into the bay to avoid the resultant fire and was one of three transports - " Buford " , " Crook " and " Warren " - used in the harbor as temporary storehouses for the supplies coming into the stricken city by sea in the weeks following the disaster . In 1907 and 1911 , the " Buford " was involved in famine relief missions to China . In 1912 – 1916 , she was involved in refugee and troop missions during the Mexican Revolution . the " Buford " was in Galveston harbor when a massive hurricane hit on August 17 , 1915 and was the city ' s sole line of communication to the outside world through her radio . With the outbreak of World War I in 1914 , the " Buford " continued her refugee rescue work , bringing away Americans who wished to flee the European fighting . She supported of the American war effort once the U . S . entered the conflict . In December 1918 , the " Buford " underwent another refit to prepare her for transporting American Expeditionary Force troops home from the war . Deportations . The " Buford " s most notorious incarnation followed a few months later when she was pressed into service as the " Soviet Ark " ( or " Red Ark " ) . On December 21 , 1919 , she was used to deport 249 political radicals and other " undesirable " aliens , among them the fiery anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman , to the Russian SFSR . This occurred between the first and second Palmer Raids of the first " Red Scare " period in the U . S . After delivering her charges , the " Buford " returned to New York on February 22 , 1920 . Political context . During the First Red Scare in 1919 - 20 following the Russian Revolution , anti - Bolshevik sentiment quickly replaced the anti - German sentiment of the World War I years . Many politicians and government officials , along with a large part of the press and the public , feared an imminent attempt to overthrow the government of the United States and the creation of a new regime modeled on that of the Soviets . In that atmosphere of public hysteria , radical views as well as moderate dissents were often characterized as un - American or subversive , including the advocacy of labor rights and any less than complementary discussion of American society and its system of government . Close ties between recent European immigrants and radical political ideas and organizations fed those anxieties as well . The Espionage Act of 1917 made it a crime to interfere with the operation or success of the armed forces of the United States . It effectively criminalized any act or speech that discouraged full compliance with the military draft . Convicted under this law , Eugene V . Debs , a five - time presidential candidate , served 3 years of a 10 - year sentence before President Warren G . Harding commuted his sentence on Christmas Day , 1921 . Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman were likewise convicted under the Espionage Act and eventually deported . The Immigration Act of 1918 denied entry into the U . S . and permitted the deportation of non - citizens " who disbelieve in or are opposed to all organized government . " Voyage . The " Buford " steamed out of New York harbor at 6 A . M . on Sunday , December 21 , 1919 , with 249 " undesirables " on board . Of those , 199 had been seized in the November 7 Palmer Raids . Some were leftists or anarchists , though perhaps as many as 180 were deported because of their membership in the Union of Russian Workers , an anarchist organization which served social and educational functions for many Russian immigrants , had been the principal target of the raids . Other deportees , including the well - known radical leaders Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman , had been detained earlier . All , by act or speech or membership in an organization , fell within the legal definition of anarchist under the Immigration Act of 1918 , which did not distinguish between " malignant conspirators and destructive revolutionists " on the one hand or " apostles of peace , preachers of the principle of non - resistance " on the other . All met the law ' s requirement in that they " believed that no government would be better for human society than any kind of government . " Goldman had been convicted in 1893 of " inciting to riot " and in 1917 for interfering with military recruitment . She had been arrested on many other occasions . Berkman had served 14 years in prison for the attempted assassination of industrialist Henry Clay Frick after the Homestead Steel Strike in 1892 . In 1917 he had been convicted alongside Goldman for the same anti - draft activities . The notoriety of Goldman and Berkman as convicted agitators allowed the press and public to imagine that all the deportees had similar backgrounds . The " New York Times " called them all " Russian Reds . " Not all the deportees were unhappy to be leaving the United States . Most were single , few were being separated from their families , and some anticipated a brighter future in the new Soviet Russia . Twenty - four hours after its departure , the " Buford " ' s captain opened sealed orders to learn his projected destination . The captain only learned his final destination while in Kiel harbor while awaiting repairs and taking on a German pilot to guide the ship through the North Sea minefields , uncleared despite Germany ' s surrender a year earlier . The State Department had found it difficult to make arrangements to land in Latvia as originally planned . Though finally chosen , Finland was not an obvious choice , since Finland and Russia were then at war . F . W . Berkshire , Supervising Inspector of Immigration , made the journey to oversee the enterprise and , in contrast to his two most famous charges , reported little conflict . A " strong detachment of marines " numbering 58 enlisted men and four officers also made the journey and pistols had been distributed to the crew . In " " My Disillusionment in Russia " , " Emma Goldman wrote of the " Buford " voyage : Alexander Berkman , in " " The Russian Tragedy " , " added , The " Buford " reached Hango , Finland at 4 : 25 pm on Friday , January 16 , 1920 . The prisoners were kept between decks until they were landed the next day , Saturday , January 17 , 1920 , at 2 pm . They were taken off the transport and marched between a cordon of American marines and Finnish White Guards to a special train that was to take them to Terijoki , Finland , about two miles from the frontier . The 249 " undesirable aliens " were placed , 30 to a car , Finnish White Guards were stationed on each car platform . The party was to be completely isolated until it reached its destination . Once loaded , the train was then held overnight while rumors of the party being killed as they crossed the border caused a diplomatic flurry . The journey began the next day , January 18 , but the exiles were sidetracked at Viborg , Finland , remaining confined in their cars , while awaiting the British Prisoners ' Relief Mission , which was to cross the Russian frontier at the same time . Delayed by storms , the " Buford " began her return voyage that same day . On January 19 , the trek continued to Terijoki . Once the deportees had arrived , and after trudging through a heavy snowstorm , a parlay was conducted under white flags of truce between Berkman , guarded by the Finns , and the Russians , out on the ice of the frozen Systerbak River , which separated the Finnish and Bolshevist lines . Things being settled , the " undesirables " then crossed over into Russia at 2 pm , Berkman and Goldman waiting until everyone else had safely crossed . All were enthusiastically received with cheers and a band playing the Russian national anthem . In the war - wrecked town of Bielo - Ostrov , which overlooked the stream , they boarded a waiting train which took them to Petrograd . Most of the press approved enthusiastically of the " Buford " experiment . The Cleveland " Plain Dealer " wrote : " It is hoped and expected that other vessels , larger , more commodious , carrying similar cargoes , will follow in her wake . " Later service . On August 5 , 1920 , the " Buford " returned the ashes of Puerto Rican patriot Dr . Ramon Emerterio Betances to San Juan . On May 2 , 1921 , once again in the Pacific , the " Buford " rescued sixty - five passengers and crew from the inferno of the Japanese steam freighter " Tokuyo Maru " , which had caught fire and burned 60 miles southwest of the mouth of the Columbia River , off Tillamook Head , Oregon . In mid 1922 , as one of her final duties as a U . S . transport , the " Buford " conducted an inspection tour of Northwestern and Alaska Army posts and closed a number of posts in the territory abandoned by the War Department . In 1923 , the " Buford " was sold to John C . Ogden and Fred Linderman of the San Francisco - based Alaskan Siberian Navigation Company . After a voyage to Alaska in the latter half of 1923 and another to the South Seas in early 1924 , the " Buford " was chartered for three months by silent film comedian Buster Keaton for use as the principal set of his film " The Navigator " . The " Buford " had been " discovered " by Keaton ' s Technical Director Fred Gabourie while scouting for ships for another , outside project , " The Sea Hawk " . Released on October 13 , 1924 , " The Navigator " proved to be Keaton ' s most financially successful film and one of his personal favorites . After this moment in the limelight , the " Buford " slipped into dormancy and would occasionally reappear at the center of several financially dubious schemes . On February 25 , 1929 , it was reported that the " Buford " would be scrapped in Yokohama , Japan by Hasegawa Gentaro . She sailed from Los Angeles on May 11 , 1929 , flying the American flag under the command of Capt . A . G . Laur to meet her final fate .