Narragansett, a 3539 gross ton coastal passenger steamship, was built at Wilmington, Delaware, in 1913. She was purchased by the Navy in January 1918 and placed in commission late in that month as USS Narragansett (ID # 2196). After outfitting for naval use, she crossed the Atlantic in July 1918 to take up duty as a transport operating in the English Channel between Great Britain and France. She continued this important logistics work through the rest of World War I and into the months that followed the November 1918 Armistice. In 1919 she began voyages further east, visiting ports in the North and Baltic Seas. However, at the end of January 1919 Narragansett ran aground on the Isle of Wight and was then out of service for two months of repairs. She returned to the United States in June 1919 and was decommissioned in the following September. USS Narragansett was sold in August 1920. While employed as a merchant ship in 1923, she was renamed Richelieu.