In November 1952 the ship was launched at the Bethlehem Shipbuilding shipyard in Quincy as a turbine general cargo ship Pine Tree Mariner of the type C4-S-1a ( Mariner class ). In 1953, the US Maritime Commission took over the ship intended for use with the US Marine Corps.
Conversion to a combi freighter
After the US-American shipping company Matson Navigation Company had taken over the ship on 1955/56, the Free State Mariner sent them to the Willamette Iron & Steel Corporation shipyard in Portland, Oregon, where it was converted into a combined ship of the MARAD type P2-S1-1g has been. After delivery, the converted ship was renamed Mariposa and began its combined passenger and cargo line service between San Francisco, Honolulu, Auckland and Sydney, operated together with Monterey , on October 27, 1956 .
Pacific Far East Line and Uncertain Years
In 1971 Matson sold the pair of ships Mariposa and Monterey to the San Francisco-based shipping company Pacific Far East Line , which used both ships on Pacific cruises until 1978 and in 1978, when state aid to maintain the service ended, put up. In 1979 it was sold to the airline President World Airways from San Francisco, which had the ship towed to Japan in November 1980. After arriving in Japan in January 1981, the ship was laid up there before being returned to the Pacific Far East Line in 1981. In 1983 the shipping company China Ocean Shipping acquired the Mariposa , renamed it Jin Jiang and used it on the Shanghai-Hong Kong route. In 1992, the name was changed to Queen of Jun Jiang , which was followed by a further renaming to the name Heng Li the following year . After thirteen years of service in Asia, the Heng Li finally arrived in India in the spring of 1996 for demolition.
