The first USS Wathena (ID-3884) was a United States Navy cargo ship in commission in 1919. Wathena was a steel-hulled, single-screw freighter built for the United States Shipping Board in 1918 at Bristol, Pennsylvania, by the Merchant Shipbuilding Corporation. She was taken over by the U.S. Navy on 1 February 1919 for operation by the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS). Assigned Identification Number (Id. No.) 3884, she was placed in commission at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the same day with Lieutenant Commander Percy E. Crosby, USNRF, in command.