USS Kerlew, a 3563-gross-ton cargo ship, was built in 1906 in England. Prior to World War I, she was the Austrian civilian freighter Virginia. She was chartered by the U.S. Army in October 1917. In mid-November 1918, the Navy took her over and placed her in commission. For the next two months, she transported coal between Great Britain and France, then carried a cargo of mines across the Atlantic to the United States. Kerlew was decommissioned and returned to her owner in April 1919. She was renamed Mount Sidney in 1922, while serving as a merchant ship.