Gulfport, formerly SS Locksun, ex-SS Andree Rickmers, was built at Bremerhaven, Germany, in 1902 by Rickmers Aktien Ges. and was owned by the German Norddeutscher Lloyd Steamship Lines Co. In Pearl Harbor when the United States entered World War I, she was seized by Government orders and converted to a cargo transport at the Honolulu Navy Yard. She commissioned 1 September 1917 at Honolulu, Lt. Comdr. P. F. Johnson, USNR, in command.