Ten were built by Cammell Laird,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] two by Workman, Clark in Belfast[12][13] and four by Alexander Stephen and Sons in Glasgow.

[20] Manistee's navigation equipment included submarine signalling and wireless direction finding.

[18] In 1934 an echo sounding device was added, and the call sign GDCX[21] superseded her code letters KLBH.

[22][23] It also served Avonmouth, Liverpool, Swansea, Barbados, Trinidad, Panama and Costa Rica.

Elders & Fyffes ships carried mail, general cargo and first class passengers as well as bananas.

Between October 1939 and August 1940 she made trips from Britain to Jamaica, Santa Marta in Colombia, Freetown in Sierra Leone, Cameroon, and Sydney, Nova Scotia.

OB 288 dispersed in the North Atlantic at 2100 hours on 23 February northwest of Ireland and south of Iceland due to U-boat activity in the area.

At 2256 hrs the Italian submarine Michele Bianchi fired torpedoes at Manistee, and claimed that one hit her stern.