By Oceanlinerorca
She was built in 1927 by the William Cramp & Sons Ship and Engine Building Company in Philadelphia. She was christened Evangeline. The ship was 365 feet long and measured 5,002 gross tons. Her sister ship, Yarmouth, was launched the same year.
Evangeline operated the Boston – Yarmouth, Nova Scotia service for the Eastern Steamship Lines until World War II, when she was sent to the Pacific to serve as a troop ship. The ship ferried combat troops from San Francisco to the island battlefronts and also served as a hospital ship. After being refitted and refinished at the Bethlehem Steel Corporation's shipyards at a cost of US$1.5 million, she returned to passenger service in May 1947.
She operated on the New York City – Bahamas run for less than a year, and was then laid up from 1948 to 1953, save for a two-month period in 1950. The ship was sold to a Liberian company called the Volusia Steamship Company in 1954. She was given an overnight run from Boston to Nova Scotia, and resumed service to the Caribbean in 1955. Read more >>