In 1919, she was briefly transferred to the US Navy, commissioned as the USS Buford (ID 3818), to repatriate troops home after World War I, and then later that year returned to the Army.

The ship began life as the SS Mississippi,[1] constructed by Harland & Wolff of Belfast, Ireland for Bernard N. Baker of Baltimore and the Atlantic Transport Line.

On 28 May 1900,[10] the Buford entered the naval yards of the Newport News Ship-Building Company for a major refitting as a troop-ship for service between the United States and the Philippines.

She was taken from the pier into the bay to avoid the resultant fire and was one of three transports — Buford, Crook and Warren — used in the harbor as temporary storehouses for the supplies coming into the stricken city by sea in the weeks following the disaster.

[13][14] In September 1906, the Buford was sent to rescue over 600 passengers and crew from the SS Mongolia, which had pierced her hull after running aground at Midway Island.

To ensure the safe arrival of Mongolia's crew, should the passenger steamer's bilge pumps fail to keep pace with the leaks, the Buford escorted her during the five-day return to Hawaii.

[1] With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the Buford continued her refugee rescue work, bringing away Americans who wished to flee the European fighting.

[19] The Buford was in Galveston harbor when a massive hurricane hit on 17 August 1915, and was the city's sole line of communication to the outside world through her radio.

In that atmosphere of public hysteria, radical views as well as moderate dissents were often characterized as un-American or subversive, including the advocacy of labor rights and any less than complimentary discussion of American society and its system of government.

The captain only learned his final destination while in Kiel harbor while awaiting repairs and taking on a German pilot to guide the ship through the North Sea minefields, uncleared despite Germany's surrender a year earlier.

Berkshire, Supervising Inspector of Immigration, made the journey to oversee the enterprise and, in contrast to his two most famous charges, reported little conflict.

[23][32] In "My Disillusionment in Russia," Emma Goldman wrote of the Buford voyage:[33] Alexander Berkman, in "The Russian Tragedy," [34] added, On the evening of 9 January 1920, she arrived at Kiel and was docked for repairs.

They were taken off the transport and marched between a cordon of American marines and Finnish White Guards to a special train that was to take them to Terijoki, Finland, about two miles (3 km) from the frontier.

[38] The journey began the next day, 18 January, but the exiles were sidetracked at Viborg, Finland, remaining confined in their cars, while awaiting the British Prisoners' Relief Mission, which was to cross the Russian frontier at the same time.

Once the deportees had arrived, and after trudging through a heavy snowstorm, a parlay was conducted under white flags of truce between Berkman, guarded by the Finns, and the Russians, out on the ice of the frozen Systerbak River, which separated the Finnish and Bolshevist lines.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote: "It is hoped and expected that other vessels, larger, more commodious, carrying similar cargoes, will follow in her wake.

[42] On 2 May 1921, once again in the Pacific, the Buford rescued sixty-five passengers and crew from the inferno of the Japanese steam freighter Tokuyo Maru, which had caught fire and burned 60 miles (100 km) southwest of the mouth of the Columbia River, off Tillamook Head, Oregon.

[44] In early 1923, the Buford was sold to John C. Ogden and Fred Linderman of the San Francisco-based Alaskan Siberian Navigation Company.

[1] On 20 July, the fledgling company steamed the Buford north with a delegation from the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce on board to explore the business opportunities of the Alaskan and Siberian markets.

[45][46] On their outward-bound stop in Seattle, a young, out of work, 25-year-old reporter joined the party, first as a passenger, then as part of the crew to earn his passage.