 "Juniata" was extensively modernized at the yard of the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company.Her boilers upgraded from coal to run on fuel oil, but she retained her original quadruple expansion steam engine.The old cabins and wooden superstructure were removed and replaced with steel to meet the new maritime fire safety standards created after the disastrous SS "Morro Castle" fire off Asbury Park, New Jersey in 1934.