The ship was laid down at the Union Construction Company in Oakland, California on 27 September 1920. She was launched on 19 April 1921, christened by Mrs. Frank G. Law, and commissioned on 4 October 1921. Haida was first stationed at Seattle, Washington, before joining the Bering Sea Patrols, based from Unalaska, Alaska. Her duties included providing medical services, search and rescue, maintaining aids to navigation, fishery patrols, and attempts to enforce Prohibition regulations. In 1924 she supported the U.S. Army's circumnavigation the globe by air.