The SS Ulysses (Panama Collier No. 1) was the first of two steel-hulled, twin screw colliers constructed at Sparrows Point, Maryland by the Maryland Steel Company for the Panama Canal Company. The ships were to a Navy design and built under naval supervision but with major differences from the two previously constructed Navy colliers, Jason and Orion. Unlike the Navy ships and many colliers the ships had ten cargo handling king posts rather than the tall, specialized coaling booms as the ships were designed to transport coal to the Panama Canal and be unloaded by equipment there.