Cokesit was a steam cargo ship built in 1918–1919 by Guy M. Standifer Construction Company of Vancouver for the United States Shipping Board as part of the wartime shipbuilding program of the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) to restore the nation's Merchant Marine. The vessel was largely employed on the East Coast of the United States to Australia route until 1928 when she was laid up. In late 1937 the ship together with several other vessels was bid on and subsequently acquired next year by the Greek tramp operator John D. Chandris to carry cargo from Australia to Greece and United Kingdom. The freighter was also renamed Adelfoi Chandris. Following the surrender of France, the ship was interned in Dakar and passed into Vichy government hands in 1940 and renamed Saint Marin. Under the ter