Due to overabundance of cargo ships being constructed and lack of tanker vessels being built, this contract was unilaterally suspended by USSB on 11 February 1919.

After prolonged negotiations between G. M. Standifer Company and the Shipping Board about the amount of compensation, the Fleet Corporation formally cancelled the contract on 1 November 1919 and two days later the shipbuilder signed a new contract with Nafra Company, an affiliate of the newly formed Green Star Steamship Corporation, to construct five vessels nearly identical to those cancelled by USSB.

After further negotiations, all five vessels were paid off by the EFC and allocated to Green Star Line to operate on their trade routes at the end of July 1920.

Antinous was the fourth of these vessels and was launched on 22 June 1920 (yard number 14), with Mrs. Ellis Lewis Garretson of Tacoma, wife of the deputy Imperial Potentate of the Shriners, being the sponsor.

[6] Following delivery to her operator, Antinous sailed from Portland on 27 July 1920 to Prescott to load part cargo of lumber destined for United Kingdom.

In late February and early March 1922 the vessel took on a cargo of wheat at New Orleans, continued on to Pensacola where she embarked about 500,000 feet of lumber and 100 barrels of turpentine and then sailed for Mobile to finish loading.

Bayou Chico had her port bow completely demolished and was taking on water fast and had to be beached in order to prevent sinking.

During her earlier years of service the vast majority of cargo was routed to London and consisted mostly of lumber, cotton, gum rosin and related products.

For example, in August she delivered a cargo consisting of 4,000 tons of phosphates and other merchandise from Florida to Hamburg in Germany and returned on October 1 loaded with things such as bone meal, salt, kianite and newspapers.

In September 1925 she cleared from Gulfport carrying 2,107,680 pounds of cottonseed cake in addition to 388,165 feet of lumber before embarking extra cargo at Mobile and Pensacola.

[22] During one of her regular trips in September 1927 Antinous, while on her way to London, Rotterdam and Antwerp with her usual cargo of lumber and general merchandise, ran into a hurricane of the East Coast.

The vessel finally arrived at her destination on October 13, six days overdue, with considerable damage about her decks with most of her deckload cargo of timber gone.

However, due to ongoing negotiations with the Post Office on the mail contract the sale has not been finalized at the time, and the ships continued to be operated by the Waterman Steamship Corp. under the supervision of the Merchant Fleet Corporation.

On 10 July 1934 a loan not to exceed US$83,675 was formally approved by the USSB and Antinous was placed in the drydock of Todd Dry Dock & Construction Co. in Mobile for upgrade and reconditioning.

[30][31] The ship's service speed also increased after the upgrades as was evidenced by one of her trips in early 1935 when she averaged 13.87 knots (15.96 mph; 25.69 km/h) on her trans-Atlantic journey.

[32] In 1935 Antinous was reassigned to Gulf to England route carrying phosphates, lumber and general cargo to British ports of Manchester, Glasgow and Liverpool.

[34][35][36] On her return trip she passed through the Panama Canal on 15–16 January 1940 carrying 8,500 tons of raw sugar loaded in the Philippines for delivery to New Orleans.

Before the water from fire fighting could be pumped out, she ran into a strong gale which washed away her deckload cargo and opened two-foot crack on her starboard bow below the waterline resulting in her No.

In the morning of 2 June 1941 while on her first voyage to Suez via Cape Town she encountered a lifeboat carrying twenty one survivors from British steamer SS Tewkesbury which was sunk on May 21.

After visiting a number of ports in India and East Indies, the steamer arrived at New York on 3 December 1941 via Honolulu and the Panama Canal concluding her last peacetime trip.

At about the same time the submarine's conning tower was spotted by a lookout from Antinous, and almost immediately a torpedo wake was noticed about 100 yards away on the port side, however, due to very short distance no evasive action could be taken by the freighter's crew to avoid being hit.

The resulting explosion opened a fourteen by eighteen feet wide hole in the hull and the vessel immediately started to take on water.