The wreck of the ship is easily visible above the water, and is both a navigational landmark for boaters and a popular dive site.

Sapona was built by the Liberty Ship Building Company of Wilmington, North Carolina, founded by Max Shoolman of Boston, MA, as part of a fleet of concrete ships authorized by Woodrow Wilson during World War I, because steel was in short supply.

Like many others in the fleet, the ship was completed after the end of the war, and Sapona was sold for scrap to Carl Fisher, one of the developers of Miami Beach.

The 1936 book Miami Millions claims that Mr. Fisher took it out to sea and sank it, but it was in fact purchased in 1924 by Bruce Bethel.

Flight 19 vanished while returning from a bombing run to Sapona and the nearby Hens and Chickens shoals.