In 1940 the Admiralty requisitioned her; had her converted into an anti-submarine training ship; and commissioned her as HMS Tuscarora (FY 044).

GL Watson designed the yacht; Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Greenock built her as yard number 347; and she was launched on 17 June 1897.

She had a single screw, driven by a three-cylinder triple-expansion engine that was rated at 122 NHP[2] and gave her a speed of 12+1⁄2 knots (23 km/h).

[7] By 1911 the industrialist and Basque nationalist Ramon de la Sota y Llano had acquired Tuscarora, renamed her Goizeko-Izarra, and she was registered in Bilbao.

[9] In 1922 Godfrey H Williams of St Donat's Castle, Vale of Glamorgan acquired the yacht, reverted her name to Tuscarora, and she was registered in Southampton.

[14] By 1934 the call sign MLVJ had superseded Tuscarora's code letters,[15][16] and by 1937 a John Urquhart of Glasgow had acquired her.

[17][17] By 1940 a Robert Reid Campbell of Glasgow had acquired her,[1] but in January that year the Admiralty had requisitioned her for war use.

She was converted into an anti-submarine training ship, commissioned as HMS Tuscarora, and given the pennant number FY 044.

[18] In the summer of 1940, training exercises involved a submarine making a practice attack on Tuscarora.

[18] The submarines most commonly used in exercises against Tuscarora were the H-class, which had been built for the First World War, and were now obsolescent.

[18] More modern Royal Navy submarines, usually deployed in front-line combat, occasionally took part in exercises against Tuscarora and other training ships.