Sylvan Arrow, a 7797 gross ton tanker, was built at Camden, New Jersey, in 1917. She was taken over by the Navy and commissioned in July 1918 as USS Sylvan Arrow (ID # 2150). As a unit of the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, she made two voyages to England, carrying fuel oil and deck cargo, before the Armistice ended World War I combat in November. In January 1919, a little over a month after returning to the U.S. at the end of her second trans-Atlantic round-trip, USS Sylvan Arrow was decommissioned and returned to her owner.