She was built in 1911 for Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland (SMN, or "Netherland Line"), which ran scheduled passenger and mail services between Amsterdam and Java.

[2] The ship had twin screws, each driven by a four-cylinder quadruple expansion steam engine built by Nederlandsche Fabriek van Werktuigen en Spoorwegmaterieel.

The combined power of her twin engines was rated at 1,093 NHP[3] or 6,500 ihp, and gave her a speed of 14+1⁄2 knots (27 km/h).

[5] Koningin der Nederlanden joined Prinses Juliana on SMN's route between Amsterdam and Batavia via Southampton, Lisbon, Tangier, Algiers, Genoa, and the Suez Canal.

[6] In 1918 the Entente Powers gave the Dutch government an ultimatum to place 600,000 GRT of its merchant ships at their disposal by 18 March.

[8] The United States Customs Service seized Koningin der Nederlanden in San Francisco.

[2] The ship was commissioned on 4 April 1918 as USS Koningin der Nederlanden, with the Naval Registry Identification Number ID-2708.

She left San Francisco on 5 November 1918, and went via the Panama Canal to Norfolk, Virginia for conversion into a troop ship.

[11] By January 1928, Koningin der Nederlanden's route between Amsterdam and Batavia was via Southampton, Algiers, Genoa, the Suez Canal, Colombo, Sabang, Belawan and Singapore.

[6] On 26 May 1930, Koninklijke Nederlandse Stoomboot-Maatschappij bought Prinses Juliana from SMN, and renamed her Costa Rica.

In August 1930 KNSM planned to buy her sister ship Koningin der Nederlanden and rename her San Salvador.