USS Saint Paul, a 14,910-ton auxiliary cruiser, was built in 1895 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as a commercial passenger liner. Chartered by the Navy in April 1898, she served in the West Indies as a cruiser during the Spanish-American War. Later in the conflict, she was employed as a transport, and was returned to her owner in September 1898.

After nearly two more decades as a passenger steamer, the Navy reacquired St. Paul during World War I, under the designation ID # 1643. However, on 28 April 1918, while under conversion at New York, she capsized in the North River. Though salvaged some months later, she was not repaired during the war and was again returned to her owner in March 1919. St. Paul was scrapped in 1923.