SS Manhattan was a 24,189 GRT luxury ocean liner built for the United States Lines, named after the Manhattan borough of New York City. On 15 June 1941 she was commissioned as USS Wakefield (AP-21) and became the largest ship ever operated by the US Coast Guard. In 1942 she caught fire and was rebuilt as a troop ship. Post-war, she was moored in New York in May, before decommissioning in June 1946. She was laid up in reserve at Jones Point, New York. She never saw commercial service again, and was sold for scrap in 1965.

United States Lines was the trade name of an organization of the United States Shipping Board (USSB), Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) created to operate German liners seized by the United States in 1917. The ships were owned by the USSB and all finances of the line were controlled by the EFC. Among the notable ships of this period was Leviathan, a contender for largest ship in the world for a time.