The Holmes sailed into the Duluth piers past the broken and battered wreck of the Pittsburgh Steamship Companies SS Mataafa which wrecked while trying to enter the piers and subsequently grounded and broke her back on the beach just a few yards from the shore, 9 of the Mataafa crew perishing in the wreck giving history the name Mataafa Storm.
In 1901, she became a part of the original Pittsburgh Steamship Division of U.S. Steel when the division was formed.