The deal had provisions that allowed some of the nine installments to be converted into longer-term notes or mortgages. The final cost of "Dakotan", including financing costs, was $66.00 per deadweight ton, which totaled just under $672,000. "Dakotan" (Maryland Steel yard no. 125) was the second ship built under the original contract. She was launched on 10 August 1912, and delivered to American-Hawaiian in November. "Dakotan" was , and was in length and abeam. She had a deadweight tonnage of and a storage capacity of . A single steam engine with oil-fired boilers driving a single screw propeller provided her power; her speed was . The steamer had accommodations for 18 officers, 40 crewmen, and could carry up to 16 passengers. When "Dakotan" began sailing for American-Hawaiian, the company shipped cargo from East Coast ports via the Tehuantepec Route to West Coast ports and Hawaii, and vice versa. Shipments on the Tehuantepec Route arrived at Mexican ports—Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, for eastbound cargo, and Coatzacoalcos for westbound cargo—and traversed the Isthmus of Tehuantepec on the Tehuantepec National Railway. Eastbound shipments were primarily sugar and pineapple from Hawaii, while westbound cargoes were general in nature. "Dakotan" sailed in this service on the east side of North America. At the time of the United States occupation of Veracruz on 21 April 1914, "Dakotan" was in port at Coatzacoalcos. There she loaded 127 American refugees from sugar plantations in the area and steamed to Veracruz. As a consequence of the American action, the Huerta-led Mexican government closed the Tehuantepec National Railway to American shipping. In early May, "The New York Times" reported that "Dakotan" had sailed to Cristóbal to pick up a cargo of sugar that had been originally slated for transport via Tehuantepec. According to the article, the sugar was to be carried on barges through the still-unopened Panama Canal, then loaded onto "Dakotan". There was no indication in the newspaper whether this mission was completed or not, but it is known that American-Hawaii returned to its historic route of sailing cargo around South America via the Straits of Magellan after Tehuantepec was closed but before the canal opened.