USS Vestal, first of a class of two 12,585-ton colliers, was built at the New York Navy Yard. Placed in service with a civilian crew in October 1909, she spent the next three years in the Atlantic providing coal to the ships of the fleet, including one voyage to Europe for that purpose.

Taken out of service in October 1912, Vestal was converted by the Boston Navy Yard into a repair ship (later receiving the hull number AR-4) and placed in commission in that role in September 1913. Into 1917, she served mainly in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico area. Shortly after the United States entered the First World War, Vestal's area of operation was moved to Queenstown, Ireland, where she maintained U.S. ships engaged in anti-submarine escort and other wartime duties. Returning to the U.S. at the end of the conflict, Vestal continued her repair mission over the next two decades. She was modernized in 1925, supported the salvage of the sunken submarine S-51 in 1925-26, and shifted her base from the Atlantic to the Pacific in 1927.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Vestal was moored outboard of the battleship Arizona. She was hit by two bombs and further damaged when Arizona's forward magazines exploded. Repaired over the next few months, she was transferred to the South Pacific in August 1942, where she mended many combat-damaged ships during the difficult times of the Guadalcanal and Central Solomons campaigns. Shifting to Central Pacific early in 1944 and to the Okinawa area in May 1945, Vestal continued to support the combat fleet to the end of World War II, and beyond. After assisting with the occupation of Japan and China, she steamed home to the U.S. and helped with the work of decommissioning ships that were not needed for the post-war fleet. She was herself placed out of commission in August 1946. Vestal was sold for scrapping in July 1950.