Ypiranga tried to enter the harbor at Veracruz to unload on the first day of the US occupation but was detained by US troops who were ordered by President of the United States Woodrow Wilson to enforce the arms embargo he had placed on Mexico.

She proceeded to a port where the US military was absent, Puerto México (modern-day Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz), and was able to offload her cargo to Huerta's officials.

The European powers did not want to be seen to be involved in the financing and shipping of arms to Huerta since it could increase tensions, if not provoke a conflict with the US, which they wished to avoid.

[5] Huerta sought an agent to purchase the arms he needed, and began working closely with Leon Raast, the Russian vice-consul in Mexico City.

[6] The manifest obtained by the United States Justice Department following the departure of Brinkhorn lists the large amount of ordnance that was on board the ship.

The German government filed a protest with the US State Department, saying that seizing the ship and its cargo was a violation of international law, since the US and Mexico were not officially at war.

[citation needed] Although the incident had the potential for greater conflict, in the assessment of historian Friedrich Katz, "the affair had no further consequences and was quickly forgotten," attributing this to the shift in German policy which came more in line with that of the US in May to June 1914.