In October 1914, five months after she was delivered to American-Hawaiian, Iowan rammed and sank the United Fruit Company steamer Metapan near the entrance to New York Harbor.

During World War I, USS Iowan carried cargo, animals, and a limited number of passengers to France, and returned nearly 10,000 American troops after the Armistice.

In May 1922, Iowan rammed and sank the Furness-Prince Line steamer Welsh Prince in the Columbia River near Astoria, Oregon, killing seven men in the process.

[6] She had a deadweight tonnage of 10,175 LT DWT,[3] and her cargo holds, which had a storage capacity of 490,859 cubic feet (13,899.6 m3),[3] were outfitted with a complete refrigeration plant so that she could carry perishable products from the West Coast—like fresh produce from Southern California farms—to the East Coast.

[15] At 15:20 on 15 October 1914, the outbound Iowan rammed the United Fruit Company passenger and cargo steamer Metapan at the entrance of Ambrose Channel outside New York.

[Note 3] Iowan, which suffered no casualties among her crew, attempted to return to her pier in Brooklyn, but was unable and instead anchored in Ambrose Channel.

Two days later, The Wall Street Journal reported that Iowan was anchored off Clifton, Staten Island, and awaiting inspection from surveyors.

[9] Iowan loaded a cargo of 800 horses,[26] along with flour, iron, and machinery at Newport News, Virginia and sailed for New York on 9 February 1918.

Though sources do not indicate the specific modifications Iowan underwent, typical conversions for other ships included the installation of berths for troops, and adding greatly expanded cooking and toilet facilities to handle the large numbers of men aboard.

Though the company had abandoned its original Hawaiian sugar routes by this time,[31] Iowan continued inter-coastal service through the Panama Canal.

In May 1922, the Associated Press reported that Iowan, sailing under the United American banner, was loading wheat, flour, and lumber at Tacoma, Washington, for England and European ports.

[32] Later that same month, on 29 May, Iowan rammed and sank the Furness-Prince Line cargo ship Welsh Prince in the Columbia River near Astoria, Oregon.

[1] On 11 June 1941, Iowan departed Los Angeles with a cargo of 4,500 long tons (4,600 t) of steel and iron pipe destined for San Francisco; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle, on her last voyage before she was to be handed over to the United States Maritime Commission.

[34] Salvage operations took some two weeks, but the ship was towed back to Los Angeles and placed in drydock at the Bethlehem Shipyard on Terminal Island.

[8] On 6 December 1942, Iowan was transferred to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease, and renamed Tashkent (Ташкент Russian pronunciation: [tɐʂˈkʲɛnt]) after the capital of Uzbekistan.

However, in August 1945, Tashkent delivered troops and cargo in support of the Soviet invasions of Japanese-held Manchuria, Korea, Sakhalin, and the Kurile Islands.

After the war's end, Tashkent returned to merchant operation with FESCO through 1966, when she was transferred to North Korea for use as a fish processing facility.