USS Charles, a 3731 gross ton coastal troop transport, was built in 1907 at Chester, Pennsylvania, as the passenger steamship Harvard. She was taken over by the Navy in March 1918 and placed in commission in early April as USS Harvard, a name that was changed to Charles a few days later. In June 1918, after fitting out at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, the ship transited the Panama Canal and steamed to Hampton Roads, Virginia. She crossed the Atlantic to Brest, France, with a load of troops in July, then went to Southampton, England, to begin service carrying military personnel across the English Channel. Between late July 1918 and early May 1919 she was kept busy in that work. Returning to the U.S. in June 1919, Charles was sent to the Philadelphia Navy Yard, where she was placed out of commission a year later. Her name reverted to Harvard in July 1920 and, though considered for conversion to a seaplane tender, she was sold in October of that year.