The passenger ship Indiana was built at William Cramp in Philadelphia in 1873 for the International Navigation Company, she was 3,335 gross tons, 343' long with one funnel, two masts and a single screw. She could make 12 knots and carry almost 1,000 passengers. She was used in trans-Atlantic voyages from Philadelphia to Liverpool until 1898 when she was sold to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and moved to the west coast of the U.S.A.

On April 3, 1909 she was en route from Mazatlan, Mexico to San Francisco when in a heavy fog the ship went aground at Punta Tosco on Santa Margarita Island, Baja California. There were no casualties. The passengers were picked up by the cruiser USS Albany and the tugs Fortune and Navajo.