On 12 November 1942, while supporting Operation Torch of the North African campaign she was sunk after being struck by a German submarine’s torpedo at Fedala Bay, Morocco.

[3] Golden State, one of the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) Design 1029 ships, often called in the trade "535s" for their length overall, planned as a troop transport, but redesigned and built as a passenger and cargo ship, with yard hull number 256, was launched 17 July 1920 in Newport News, Virginia, by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company and completed in 1921 assigned United States official number 220485.

[8][9] Robert Stanley Dollar, son of the founder Captain Robert Dollar, had already acquired a fleet of the smaller Design 1095 ships, commonly known in the trade as "502s" or less frequently as "522s" for their length between perpendiculars and overall, respectively, and established a successful service circling the globe with 22 port calls when the government approached the company about purchase of the larger "535s".

[10] President Cleveland and the other former USSB ships of Pacific Mail's fleet continued to operate in this service until 1938 when the United States Maritime Commission, successor to the USSB, judged the Dollar company unsound and took over the assets including the ships to be operated by a new company, American President Lines.

[12] One of the ship's most famous passengers was the Nobel Prize–winning author Sigrid Undset, who fled the Nazis by travelling across Russia and sailed to the USA on the President Cleveland.

After loading troops and equipment to participate in Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa, the ships of the task force sailed on 24–25 October for the coast of Morocco.

[14] During the landings, Bliss had to re-embark the 3d Reconnaissance Troop of 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment after a failed night attack to destroy a heavy antiaircraft gun battery at Beach Yellow, on Cap de Fedala southwest of the town of Fedhala.

On the evening of 12 November 1942, she was riding at anchor in Fedhala Roads when the Kriegsmarine submarine U-130 commanded by Ernst Kals slipped in among the ships and fired five torpedoes at three transports.