USS Brutus, formerly the steamer Peter Jebsen, was built in 1894 at South Shields-on-Tyne, England, by John Readhead & Sons and was acquired by the United States Navy early in 1898 from L. F. Chapman & Company. She was renamed Brutus and commissioned at the Mare Island Navy Yard on 27 May 1898, with Lieutenant Vincendon L. Cottman, commanding officer and Lieutenant Randolph H. Miner, executive officer.