SS Manoa was an American freight and passenger steamship that sailed for the Matson Line from San Francisco to Hawaii.

[4] Unusual for her time, her engines and funnel were aft, minimizing vibration felt by the passengers and soot on deck.

[6] After the Attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, she was put into military service and transferred to the Soviet Union under terms of Lend-Lease.

[6] The ship was modernized in 1956 in Chinese shipyards and restored to her original configuration carrying both cargo and passengers.

She was used for the next few years as a floating base to repair navigation equipment for the Vladivostok merchant fleet.