USS Tanamo, a 3299 gross ton refrigerated supply ship, was built in 1914 at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, as the civilian freighter Van Hogendorp. She was chartered by the Navy in August 1918 and placed in commission later in that month for duty with the Naval Overseas Transportation Service. Tanamo began her first trans-Atlantic voyage as a Navy ship in mid-August, but boiler troubles diverted her to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Following repairs at Halifax and New York, she again went to sea in early October and arrived in France in mid-month. The ship began a second round-trip Atlantic crossing in December 1918 and a third in February 1919. She was decommissioned in April 1919 and returned to her owner.