SS Mongolia ( 1903 ) SS " Mongolia was a 13 , 369 - ton passenger - and - cargo liner originally built for Pacific Mail Steamship Company in 1904 . She later sailed as USS " Mongolia " ( ID - 1615 ) for the U . S . Navy , as SS " President Fillmore for the Dollar Line and as SS " Panamanian " for Cia Transatlantica Centroamericano . Ordered by E . H . Harriman ' s Pacific Mail Steamship Co . for its San Francisco - Far East service , " Mongolia " was laid down as " Minnelora " on 7 June 1902 in Shipway J at New York Shipbuilding in Camden , New Jersey . The 615 - foot vessel was contract # 5 for the young company , and the first passenger - cargo liner built by the firm . A sister ship , , was ordered at the same time and delivered three months after " Mongolia . " The accommodations of both ships reflected the importance of emigration to shipping lines of the era : 350 first - class , 68 second - class , and 1 , 300 steerage . In August 1915 Pacific Mail sold " Mongolia " to Atlantic Transport Line , for whom she plied the New York - London route . Following the German declaration of a submarine blockade around Britain , " Mongolia " received a self - defense armament of three deck guns manned by U . S . Navy gun crews . One month later , " Mongolia " became the first American vessel to test the blockade , using those guns to drive off ( and possibly sink ) a U - boat seven miles southeast of Beachy Head , in the English Channel . That was the first armed encounter for an American vessel after the US ' s entry to World War I . For the next year , " Mongolia " ferried American troops and supplies to Europe under a civilian flag . On 27 April 1918 , the US Navy requisitioned the vessel , which was commissioned 8 May as USS " Mongolia " ( ID - 1615 ) . She served as a troop transport , completing twelve turnarounds at an average duration of 34 days before her decommissioning 11 September 1919 . According to an article dated 22 May 1917 in the " Chicago Tribune " 2 American nurses , Edith Ayers and Helen Wood , were accidentally killed during one of these crossings . . The women were on the deck of the Mongolia observing the firing of various weapons when they were struck by fragments of the 6 - inch gun ' s propellant caps which had ricocheted off a stanchion . Returned to civilian service , " Mongolia " sailed the New York - Hamburg route under charter to the American Line . She was purchased in 1923 by the Panama Pacific Line and placed into service on its New York - San Francisco route ( via the Panama Canal ) . In 1929 , Dollar Steamship Lines acquired " Mongolia " and her sister ship " Manchuria " for its east - to - west round - the - world service , renaming them " President Fillmore " and " President Johnson " , respectively . The former " Mongolia " sailed for only two years with the Dollar Line . With the onset of the Great Depression , she was laid up in New York , and when the Dollar Line collapsed in 1938 ownership passed to the newly created American President Lines . She never sailed under the APL pennant , however , and was sold in 1940 to Cia Transatlantica Centroamericana of Panama , which renamed her " Panamanian " . She was scrapped in Shanghai , China , 20 May 1946 .