It was commissioned by J.C Arana y Hermanos, a rubber firm with offices in the cities of Manaus and Iquitos, located along the Amazon River.

[3] Liberal frequently travelled between Iquitos and the Putumayo River, transporting rubber and personnel during its service with Arana's enterprise.

[10] After Armando Normand's attack against Urbano Gutierrez in January 1907, eight Columbians were taken captive on Liberal by employees of Arana's company, who intended to send them to prison in Iquitos.

[12][13] On August 5, 1907, Iquitos-based journalist Benjamin Saldaña Rocca published "La ola de sangre" ("The Wave of Blood"), which detailed an altercation aboard Liberal witnessed by a cook named Juan Vela.

Investigating a commotion, Vela saw Captain Zubiaur beating an employee of Arana's company, Juan Juarez, with a large piece of firewood.

[14][15] On September 23, 1907, Saldaña Rocca published an article with this statement: "The Liberal, small steamer of the Casa Arana, has brought from the Putumayo 93,000 kilos of elastic rubber.

The article claimed that Loayza had telegraphed the company headquarters information[h] that "a large force of Colombians, well armed and uniformed and under the command of two generals" was assembling to attack El Encanto and La Chorrera.

Loayza along with around 80 armed men, employees of Arana's company, embarked on Liberal to investigate what had happened to the two imprisoned agents.

"[21] Hardenburg and Orjuela were informed about the raid against La Reserva, where the Peruvians had attacked the settlement, looted 170 arrobas of rubber, which was loaded onto Liberal and afterwards they "destroyed everything they could not steal.

[q] According to Hardenburg, Loayza threatened the Colombians settled there with death if they would not meet his demands of immediately abandoning their estate and surrendering their firearms.

On January 20 Cosmopolita and Liberal met with Iquitos at a settlement named Arica, located near the confluence of the Igaraparana tributary with the Putumayo River.

On either January 31[60] or February 1 according to Hardenburg,[61] Liberal arrived at Iquitos with 35,000 kilos of rubber and seven Colombian prisoners who were "suffering heavily" from the conditions of their imprisonment.

[60] "Another method of exploiting these unfortunate Indians takes the form of selling them as slaves in Iquitos, and this business in human flesh yields excellent returns to the company or its employees, for they are sold in that capital at from £20 to £40 each.

Every steamer that goes to Iquitos, loaded with the rubber from the Putumayo, carries from five to fifteen little Indian boys and girls, who are torn, sobbing, from their mothers' arms without the slightest compunction.

Roger Casement believed that "[t]his journey of Senor Arana in company with these two Peruvian officers of high rank is really the key to the whole subsequent situation.

[29][64] Consul-general Roger Casement was sent to investigate the involvement and abuse of Barbadian employees in Arana's rubber company in 1910, and he travelled to the Putumayo River estates onboard Liberal.

When the rubber is unloaded and stored he will be kept at Chorrera doing any dirty or heavy work at the Station, just as the Boras Indians who found on arrival had to discharge the cargo from the 'Liberal'.

I can well believe anyone would die from even 1/2 an hour down the hold of a tiny launch like this – the depth is not more than 4 feet, and there is absolutely no air or breathing hole of any kind once the hatch is on, and iron walls all around, in this climate!

One of the natives from Sur was physically assaulted by an employee from Entre Rios named Borborini, and he was fired by the manager of La Chorrera.

[95] Paredes claimed: "On the Liberal were the two notorious criminals, Abelardo Aguero and Augusto Jimenez, chiefs or managers of the rubber region known as Abisinia, who, supposing the approaching boat had on board the judge, and fearing discovery, behaved like madmen, committing the most ridiculous acts, which caused even the crew to lose their wits, especially when they were compelled to do their utmost to conceal the outlaws in the hold.

According to Greenidge, the captain of Liberal, Ubaldo Lores, assisted Francis and allowed him to disembark in Brazil, away from Peruvian authorities.

[99][w] On August 29, 1912, Jose Torralbo, a Colombian consul-general wrote that, "[t]he Liberal is to-day a veritable phantom ship, the whistle of which raises terror in the inhabitants of the forests."

[101] Julio Cesar Arana, the photographer Silvino Santos and Carlos Rey de Castro boarded Liberal prior to its arrival at La Chorrera, and the two shadowed the consuls during their trip to the Putumayo.

It could be proved by the incontestable eloquence of figures that, whereas in the years 1905 to 1910 there was little or nothing sent there as regards provisions and stores, these steamers returned, on the other hand with enormous cargos of 80 to 100 tons of rubber.

Gaspar de Pinell boarded the Liberal on October 9, 1918, with permission from the commander of the steamship, Captain Celso Prieto of the Peruvian navy.

According to an oral history provided by Florentina Piña de Miveco, Liberal transported members of the Aguaje Bora nation from their native-lands in the Putumayo towards Remanso after the rebellion.

Piña de Miveco stated that during this time, Liberal transported various groups of people towards the Algodón tributary and from there migrants travelled on foot for several days until they reached the Yahuasyacu River.

During this time government soldiers arrived at Puerto Melendez onboard steamship Hamburgo and attacked Gonzalez's group, most of which dispersed into the jungle.

This flotilla was composed of the gunboat América, with the steamships Adolfo, Luz II, San Pablo, Cahuapanas and Liberal.

These two officers organized defenses which consisted of mines and torpedoes, their goal was to hinder the progression of enemy reinforcements by river.