SC-3 was a wooden-hulled 110-foot (34 m) submarine chaser built at Naval Station New Orleans in New Orleans, Louisiana. She was commissioned on 23 January 1918 as USS Submarine Chaser No. 3, abbreviated at the time as USS S.C. 3. During World War I, S.C. 3 served on antisubmarine patrol duty in the Special Hunting Squadron, USS Salem Group, against German submarines in the Gulf of Mexico, and was based at Key West, Florida. When the U.S. Navy adopted its modern hull number system on 17 July 1920, Submarine Chaser No. 3 was classified as SC-3 and her name was shortened to USS SC-3.