United States Coast Guard Report 5, “Story of a Transport”,

During a glamorous career as the ocean liner USS Manhattan, the Manhattan plied the Atlantic sea lanes between Europe and the USA. It carried the U.S. Olympic team including Jesse Owens and Glenn Cunningham to Germany in 1936. During WWII, the ship was rechristened the USS Wakefield (AP-21) and placed into service by the U.S. Coast Guard as a troop ship. Its wartime service was spent transporting tens of thousands of American soldiers to the battlefront. Wakefield’s career was star crossed, as she was a ship with a history of accidents: a grounding, a bomb hit in Singapore, and a disastrous fire at sea. After being rebuilt, she soldiered on with the humble job of housing her passengers with six-tier bunks, saltwater showers, and seasick soldiers. This wartime propaganda film ends with a call to buy bonds to support the war effort.