The vessel was launched on February 21, 1914 and was the newer of two near-sister ships, the older one being the North American.

She was equipped with a 2,200 indicated horsepower quadruple-expansion steam engine and three coal-burning Scotch marine boilers.

In 1967, the South American departed from her usual schedule to offer trips to the 1967 World's Fair in Montreal.

At the end of the season, she was retired from regular passenger service and sold to Seafarers International Union in Piney Point, Maryland, as a replacement for the North American which sank a year prior while in tow there.

Failing Coast Guard inspection, she was moved to Camden, New Jersey, where she rotted before being scrapped in 1992 in Baltimore.