Western Belle was constructed in 1918 as the commercial steel-hulled, single-screw cargo ship SS Western Belle for the United States Shipping Board by the Columbia River Shipbuilding Corporation at Portland, Oregon. The Shipping Board transferred her to the U.S. Navy, and the Navy assigned her the naval registry identification number 3551 and commissioned her on 22 November 1918 at the Puget Sound Navy Yard at Bremerton, Washington, as USS Western Belle (ID-3551) with Lieutenant Commander Olaf Breiland, USNRF, in command.