At half-past two p.m. on September 13, 1918 the United States Navy took possession of the USS Lake Elsinore and commissioned the cargo ship into the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, or N.O.T.S., during the twilight of “The Great War.” The ship was promptly re-fitted and re-furnished in accordance with Navy standards and protocols.

     While construction of the cargo ship began a little more than a year after America had entered World War I, in May of 1918 German U-boats had been detected in U.S. waters for the first time. On May 25, the German submarine U-151 sunk the schooners Hattie Dunn, Happauge and damaged the schooner Edna off the coast of Virginia. These were the first U-boat attacks off of the U.S. coastline.