USS Mercury, a 10984 gross ton troop transport, was built at Hamburg, Germany, in 1896 as the passenger liner Barbarossa. For nearly two decades she served in commercial trade under the flag of the North German Lloyd firm. Laid up at Hoboken, New Jersey, after the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, she was seized there when the United States entered the conflict in April 1917. The ship was turned over to the Navy for repair and conversion and commissioned as USS Barbarossa in early August 1917. Soon renamed Mercury, and later assigned the registry ID # 3012, she began carrying military personnel to France a few days after the beginning of 1918. The ship made seven trips to France, with over 18,000 passengers, until the 11 November 1918 Armistice halted the fighting. Mercury then began the process of bringing American troops home. She made eight more trips for this purpose, carrying over 20,000 men. In September 1919, after her final trip, USS Mercury was decommissioned and transferred to the War Department for use as an Army transport. The Army turned her over to the U.S. Shipping Board in August 1920. Though subsequently sold to a private shipping firm, her new owners defaulted and the ship came back to the Shipping Board in January 1921. She was sold for scrapping in February 1924.