USAT Buford - Later Service

Later Service

On August 5, 1920, Buford returned the ashes of Puerto Rican patriot Dr. Ramon Emerterio Betances to San Juan.

On May 2, 1921, once again in the Pacific, Buford rescued sixty-five passengers and crew from the inferno of the Japanese steam freighter Tokuyo Maru, which had caught fire and burned 60 miles southwest of the mouth of the Columbia River, off Tillamook Head, Oregon.

In mid 1922, as one of her final duties as a U. S. transport, the Buford conducted an inspection tour of Northwestern and Alaska Army posts and closed a number of posts in the territory abandoned by the War Department.

In 1923, Buford was sold to John C. Ogden and Fred Linderman of the San Francisco-based Alaskan Siberian Navigation Company. After a voyage to Alaska in the latter half of 1923 and another to the South Seas in early 1924, Buford was chartered for three months by silent film comedian Buster Keaton for use as the principal set of his film The Navigator. Buford had been "discovered" by Keaton's Technical Director Fred Gabourie while scouting for ships for another, outside project, The Sea Hawk. Released on October 13, 1924, The Navigator proved to be Keaton's most financially successful film and one of his personal favorites. After this moment in the limelight, Buford slipped into dormancy and would occasionally reappear at the center of several financially dubious schemes.

On February 25, 1929, it was reported that Buford would be scrapped in Yokohama, Japan by Hasegawa Gentaro. She sailed from Los Angeles on May 11, 1929, flying the American flag under the command of Capt. A. G. Laur to meet her final fate.