SS Manchuria

This is the steamer that Burtha M. Thompson travelled to Sanfransisco in via Honolulu.

The photograph and following text are cited from this website

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-m/id1633.htm

Please check the website out to see more images of the steamer.
This is a picture of the SS Manchuria originally built as a passenger steamer. She was taken over by the US Navy in April 1918 and commisioned later that month. During the rest of World War I she made five voyages to France, carrying American service personnel to the European war zone. After the November 1918 Armistice ended the fighting, Manchuria began bringing veterans home, making nine trips from France to the United States for this purpose. The last of these ended at New York in late August 1919. The ship was decommissioned there in September and returned to her owner.

Manchuria then resumed commercial operation, working in trans-Atlantic trade until 1923, when she began making trips between the U.S. East and West coasts. She was renamed President Johnson in November 1928 and thereafter was employed on round-the-World service. Late in 1941 the ship became a transport again, this time as a War Shipping Administration vessel under the control of the U.S. Army. During World War II she carried men and material throughout the Pacific Ocean, and made one post-war voyage to and from the Philippines during late 1945 and early 1946. Returned to civilian control after that trip, she was transferred to Panamanian registry in January 1947, renamed Santa Cruz, and spent the next several years carrying Italian emigrants to South America. The old ship was scrapped in Italy in 1952.