The first USS Auburn (ID-3842) was a cargo ship in the United States Navy. Auburn was a steel-hulled freighter built for the United States Shipping Board (USSB) at Chester, Pennsylvania, by the Chester Shipbuilding Company and completed in 1918. She was delivered to the Navy by the USSB for service in the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS). Assigned the identification number 3842, Auburn was commissioned at Philadelphia on the afternoon of 24 January 1919, Lieutenant Commander Fred L. Moulton, USNRF, in command.