SC-1 was a wooden-hulled 110-foot (34 m) submarine chaser built at Naval Station New Orleans in New Orleans, Louisiana. She was commissioned on either 1 or 8 October 1917 as USS Submarine Chaser No. 1, abbreviated at the time as USS S.C. 1. On 20 July 1921, the Navy sold SC-1 to Henry A Hitner & Sons of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.