Asbury Park was a high-speed coastal steamer built in Philadelphia, and intended to transport well-to-do persons from New York to summer homes on the New Jersey shore.

This vessel was sold to West Coast interests in 1918, and later converted to an automobile ferry, serving on various routes San Francisco Bay, Puget Sound and British Columbia.

[2] The vessel was intended to attract wealthy patrons from New York's financial district, who would use the ship to reach their summer homes on the New Jersey shore.

However, her size and speed made her ill-suited to the route, and she lacked manoeuvrability in the congested waters of New York harbour.

There she operated between downtown Seattle and Bremerton, site of the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, one of the United States Navy's main centres for building, maintaining, and repairing warships during the Second World War.

[1] Passenger capacity of the reconstructed vessel was set at 1,000, with room for 100 automobiles on the six-lane car deck, which was 275 feet (84 m)long.

The vessel was renamed Kahloke, and was placed on the run from Vancouver across the Strait of Georgia to Nanaimo, completing the route five times per day.

[1] From 1953 to 1962 she operated along with the MV Chinook II crossing the Strait of Georgia between Nanaimo and Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver.