Old North State was one of seven, after a contract adjustment from an original thirteen, Emergency Fleet Corporation Design 1095 passenger/cargo ships, later more frequently known in the industry as the "502" type for the design length of 502 feet (153.0 m) between perpendiculars, ordered in 1919 by the United States Shipping Board to be constructed at New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey.

[5][note 1] The design had been for troop transports until signing of the armistice ending World War I made completion as civilian passenger and cargo ships desirable.

The timetable for the President Liners boasted: Embarking from New York the ships made calls at Havana, Colon, Balboa, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu, Kobe, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore, Penang, Colombo, Suez, Port Said, Alexandria, Naples, Genoa, Marseilles, and Boston before returning to New York.

[17] In 1937 the company reached its nadir when its crown jewel, the luxurious SS President Hoover, ran aground near Taiwan and had to be declared a total loss.

While the new President Fillmore resumed civilian cargo service, the older ship was sold and renamed SS Panamanian.

This role was revealed by the personal recollection of a British merchant seaman whose ship, the SS Fellside, had been sunk by torpedo: When the United States entered the war in December 1941 President Fillmore was requisitioned by the War Shipping Administration (WSA) on 9 February 1942 and operated by American President Lines as the WSA agent.

President Fillmore would now serve the Pacific transporting troops and supplies from Oregon and Washington north to the Aleutians and south to Hawaii.

She would later transport troops to the Philippines and to the Marshall Islands[22] Captain David C. Austin was awarded the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal for his cool courage and leadership of his crew has they repulsed heavy enemy attacks.

Transports were subject to enemy attack while hospital ships plainly marked and operated under the terms of the Hague Convention were protected.

[20][25] On 18 June 1944, with the name selected by the Office of the Surgeon General, the United States Army Hospital Ship (USAHS) Marigold departed Seattle for Charleston, South Carolina.

She was the first Allied ship to arrive in Japan and was present when the Japanese Instrument of Surrender was signed on board the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63).

Australian, British, Canadian, Dutch, Greek, Chinese and Japanese patients were cared for alongside American troops.

[17] Decommissioned on June 8, 1946[4] her name reverted to President Fillmore and she was first transferred to the reserve fleet at Suisun Bay, California.