USS Covington, a 16,339 gross ton transport, was built at Danzig, Germany, in 1908 as the passenger liner Cincinnati. When World War I broke out in August 1914 the German-flag ship took refuge in U.S. waters, and was seized at Boston, Massachusetts, when the United States entered the conflict in April 1917. She was later turned over to the Navy, renamed Covington and placed in commission in late July. The ship underwent shipyard work for the next few months and began her active war work in mid-October 1917 when she left port for her first voyage carrying U.S. troops to France. Covington made five additional trips to France during the rest of 1917 and the first half of 1918, taking nearly 22,000 men to participate in operations on the "Great War"'s Western Front. In the evening of 1 July 1918, while en route back to the U.S. on the return leg of her sixth trooping voyage, USS Covington was torpedoed by the German submarine U-86. She floated through the night and was taken in tow by tugs sent out from Brest, but sank on the afternoon of 2 July.