Williams was built as the private vessel Grayling - described by sources both as a wooden-hulled screw steam yacht and as a motorboat - in 1907 by B. Frank Wood at City Island, The Bronx, New York, for Justus Ruperti of New York City to a design by the firm of Tams, Lemoine, and Crane. Apparently she later was renamed Williams. The U.S. Navy eventually acquired Williams for use as a section patrol vessel during World War I. She was commissioned at New York City as USS Williams (SP-498) on 16 March 1918 with Chief Boatswain M. T. Moran, USNRF, in command.