Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation Design 1023 ship ordered under the name Minnewawa and built as hull #103 by Submarine Boat Company, Newark, New Jersey in 1920[1][2] Coast Farmer is noted as being a part of the Pensacola Convoy landing the supplies and troops intended for the Philippines in Darwin, Australia after being diverted on the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

[9][Note 4] Coast Farmer was one of three merchant cargo ships in the convoy and largely carried civilian supplies for the shops of Guam and Manila.

[14] The Coast Farmer was then loaded for the return trip with tin and baled rubber brought from Cebu City by the Filipino coasters Agustina, Cegostina, and Emilia.

[6] The supplies brought by the Coast Farmer were destroyed in transshipment when the smaller ships trying to reach Corregidor were sunk by gunfire from Japanese naval forces off Mindanao.

[17] The Coast Farmer was engaged in supporting the war effort in coastwise shipping when the Japanese submarine I-11[18] torpedoed and sank her off Jervis Bay, New South Wales, Australia, on 20 July 1942.