SS Ypiranga was a cargo liner that was launched in Germany in 1908 for the Hamburg America Line (HAPAG).

There she became involved in the politics of the Mexican Revolution, first taking President Porfirio Díaz into exile in 1911, and then gun-running in 1914 in the Ypiranga incident.

In 1908 Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft in Kiel completed a pair of sister ships for HAPAG.

[4] In September 1910 Germany sold the battleships SMS Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm and Weissenburg to the Ottoman Navy.

The flow of water between the tanks, controlled by regulating the movement of the air in the side branches, steadied her in rough seas.

[9] On 4 June the ship called at Havana, where the Mexican ambassador and representatives of the Cuban government came aboard to pay him farewell visits.

[10] In April 1912 Ypiranga was on an eastbound crossing from Havana to Hamburg via Plymouth and Le Havre.

On 13 April the Marconi Company wireless station on Cape Race signalled her, asking her to look for the Deutsch-Australische DG cargo ship Augsburg,[11] which had left New York on 2 February for Durban, and had been reported missing on 22 March.

On the night of 15 April Ypiranga's wireless operator received RMS Titanic's first distress signal.

[13] In April and May 1914 Ypiranga delivered a cargo of rifles, machine guns and ammunition to Vera Cruz and Puerto Mexico (now Coatzacoalcos) for President Victoriano Huerta's army.

One US refugee alleged that Zapatistas in Tabasco tortured to death a German mining engineer and his wife.

[4] Ports of call en route were Funchal, São Tomé, Sazaire, Luanda, Porto Amboim, Lobito, Moçâmedes, Lourenço Marques (now Maputo), and the Island of Mozambique.

On 1 June the Portuguese ship Tarrafal found 85 survivors in four lifeboats 10 nautical miles (19 km) off Santo Antão, Cape Verde.

[25] On 25 July Mouzinho called at São Vicente, where she embarked some of Clan MacDougall's survivors to take them to Bathurst (now Banjul) in Gambia.

[24][25] On 10 September another CCN ship, Guiné, embarked the remainder of Auditor's survivors to take them to Bathurst.