USS Annapolis, a 1153-ton gunboat, was built at Elizabethport, New Jersey, and commissioned in July 1897. She spent her early years in the Atlantic, including Spanish-American War operations off Cuba and Puerto Rico.

From 1901 until 1918, Annapolis was active in the Pacific, on duty in Asiatic waters and off Central America. During World War I, she was transferred to the Gulf of Mexico, but returned to the Pacific in 1919. The next year, she began two decades with the Pennsylvania State Nautical School. Annapolis was struck from the Navy List in June 1940.