In April 1941 the U.S. Army purchased the 5341 gross-ton passenger liner Kent, which had been built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1918 and served in 1918-1919 as USS Santa Teresa. Renamed Ernest Hinds, she was converted to a troopship at Boston, Massachusetts, and took part in maneuvers off Cape Cod before being transferred to the Navy in July 1941. After serving as USS Kent (AP-28) for eight months, she was returned to the Army in March 1941 and again became USAT Ernest Hinds.

During May 1942 - September 1943 Ernest Hinds operated as a transport, making a trip to Alaska in mid-1942 and thereafter carrying personnel and cargo between the U.S., Hawaii, and the south Pacific and within the latter region. The ship was converted to a hospital ship at San Francisco, California, between September 1943 and June 1944. She then steamed through the Panama Canal to begin service between the U.S. East Coast and the Mediterranean Sea. Ernest Hinds's hospital ship service ended in September 1945 and she was again altered to a transport. She carried Jamaican laborers between Florida and Jamaica on behalf of the War Shipping Administration until turned over to the U.S. Public Health Service in April 1946 for use as a floating isolation ward at Jacksonville, Florida. She was transferred to the Maritime Administration in April 1947 and laid up at Brunswick, Georgia. Moved to the James River, Virginia, Reserve Fleet in April 1948, the nearly forty-year-old ship was sold for scrapping in May 1957.