[3] Originally named Georgiana III, the ship was constructed in 1916 by Harlan and Hollingsworth in Wilmington, Delaware, a 95-foot steel-hulled yacht as the yard's hull number 3447.

[9] Georgiana III, the third yacht for William G. Coxe, the president of the company that built it, was intended for use on the Delaware Bay.

[7] Georgiana III was listed in the 1916 New York Yacht Club registry with a private signal pennant with a white hen on a blue background.

The Navy reluctantly created an office to acquire and prepare for acquisition of yachts suitably modified and strengthened to mount weapons and endure hard service.

[13][14][15] On 3 May 1917, the U.S. Navy acquired the yacht by free lease from her owner, J. H. R. Cromwell for World War I service as a Section patrol vessel.

Georgiana III went to Wilmington on 26 May 1917 for conversion into a Section patrol craft by Harlan and Hollingsworth, with the ship being fitted with two 3-pounder (47 mm) guns.

Fitted with underwater listening gear in July 1918, she also escorted ships through the Defensive Sea Area of Delaware Bay.

[dubious – discuss][17][note 1] Robert Hosmer Morse of Fairbanks-Morse bought the vessel in 1925 and gave her the name Rosinco.

[18] On the 18th of September, Robert Hosmer Morse left Milwaukee to visit the Fairbanks-Morse plant in Beloit, Wisconsin and Rosinco was to return to Chicago.

In the early morning hours of the 19th, Rosinco reportedly struck a raft of sawed wooden beams that ruptured the hull and began sinking rapidly.