In December 1919, Coquina was chartered to help export stocks of whisky which had been made unsaleable by the Volstead Act that had introduced prohibition in the United States.

[7][8] On December 6, 1941, SS Cynthia Olson was in the Pacific about midway on the great circle between Tacoma, Washington and Honolulu, Hawaii with a cargo of lumber for the US Army.

[1] At about 22:00 Hawaii Time, she was spotted by the Japanese submarine I-26 which overtook the Cynthia Olson and conformed to her course while running ahead of her on the surface throughout the night.

The submarine's captain, Commander Minoru Yokota, had been ordered not to open hostilities against American vessels until 08:00 on December 7, which was the intended time of the Attack on Pearl Harbor.

[9] When zero-hour arrived, I-26 fired a warning shot with the 14 cm deck gun intended to halt the Cynthia Olson but she continued to run on.

Surfacing again, a further 29 shells were fired into the ship,[11] before she finally turned over onto her port side and I-26 left the scene, some five hours after the start of the engagement.