Virginian was built as the commercial tug Blue Bell or Blue Belle in 1904 at Camden, New Jersey. She subsequently was renamed SS Virginian. The U.S. Navy acquired her for World War I service from her owner, the Southern Transportation Company, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania probably sometime in late 1917. The Navy apparently commissioned her sometime in early 1918 as USS Virginian. Virginian served as a tug in the 5th Naval District—probably at Norfolk, Virginia, through the end of World War I and into the early months of 1919.