USS Princess Matoika (ID-2290) - U.S. Mail Line

U.S. Mail Line

At the conclusion of her Army service, Princess Matoika was handed over to the United States Shipping Board, who chartered the vessel to the United States Mail Steamship Company for service from New York to Italy. This solution of how to use the Princess for civilian service was the culmination of efforts by the to find a suitable civilian use for her. In 1919, she was one of the ships suggested for a proposed service from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Valparaiso, Chile, and in November 1919, tentative plans were announced for her service with the Munson Line between New York and Argentina beginning in mid-1920, but both of these proposals fell through.

Princess Matoika—outfitted for 350 cabin-class and 500 third-class passengers and at 10,421 gross register tons (GRT)—kicked off her U.S. Mail Line service on 20 January 1921 when she sailed from New York to Naples and Genoa on her first of three roundtrips between these ports. After a storm damaged the Matoika's steering gear, she had to be towed back in to New York on 28 January.

After repairs and a successful eastbound crossing, Princess Matoika had an encounter with an iceberg off Newfoundland while carrying some 2,000 Italian immigrants on her first return trip from Italy. On the night of 24 February, the fully laden ship struck what was reported in The New York Times as either "an iceberg or a submerged wreck" off Cape Race. The ship's steering gear was damaged in the collision, leaving the ship adrift for over seven hours before repairs were effected. The Matoika's captain indicated that no passengers were hurt in the collision. According to the story of one third-class passenger, she, suspecting there was something seriously amiss, made inquiry after the commotion. A crew member told her that the Matoika had only stopped to greet a ship passing in the night. When she went on deck, insistent on seeing the other ship herself, she saw the iceberg and observed the first-class passengers queued up to board the already-lowered lifeboats. She took her daughter with her to join one of the queues, and, though initially rebuffed, was allowed to remain. The lifeboats were never deployed, however, and the Matoika arrived in Boston, where she had been diverted due to a typhus scare, on 28 February without further incident.

On the Matoika's third and final return voyage from Italy, begun on 17 May, U.S. Customs Service agents at New York seized $150,000 worth of cocaine—along with valuable silks and jewels—being smuggled into the United States. Officials speculated that because of a maritime strike, members of a smuggling ring were able to infiltrate the crew of the ship.

After her withdrawal from the Italian route, Princess Matoika was transferred to New York–Bremen service, sailing on her first commercial trip to Germany since before World War I on 14 June. In July, during her second roundtrip on the Bremen route, late rental payments to the resulted in action to seize the nine ships chartered by the U.S. Mail Line, including the Matoika, after its return from Bremen. The ships were turned over to United American Lines—W. Averell Harriman's steamship company—for temporary operation. After some legal wrangling by both the and the U.S. Mail Line—and in light of financial irregularities by the U.S. Mail Line that were uncovered—the ships were permanently retained by the in August.