The 8672 gross ton freighter Arizonan was built at San Francisco, California, in 1902. After more than a decade and a half of work for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company, in August 1918 she was taken over by the Navy and placed in commission as USS Arizonan (ID # 4542-A). She made one round-trip voyage to France before the 11 November 1918 Armistice ended the First World War's fighting. Subsequently converted to a transport, the ship resumed her operations in February 1919. During the next six months Arizonan completed four trips to and from France, taking cargo to Europe and bringing home service personnel and war materiel. On her last eastward voyage, in July 1919, she took USS Edward Luckenbach (ID # 1662) in tow after encountering that disabled ship in mid-ocean. USS Arizonan was decommissioned in late September 1919 and returned to her owner. She operated commercially under U.S. and Japanese registry until about the end of the 1920s.