 The young Krebs was a fashion illustrator for the St. Louis department store Famous-Barr, and neither she nor Streckfus originally took the design seriously, but she would also design another vessel for Streckfus, SS "President", in 1934.Construction was completed in 1940 at a cost of over $700,000 (equivalent to approximately $13M in 2019).Streckfus Steamers tested the rebuilt ship on May 28, 1940.