Lightburne was laid down on 27 April 1918 and launched on 19 July 1919 (yard number 12), with Mrs. George B. Drake of New York City, wife of the general manager of Texas Steamship Co., being the sponsor.

Upon delivery Lightburne proceeded to Port Arthur to load her cargo and departed for Philadelphia on 10 September 1919 reaching her destination ten days later.

[8][9] The ship made a few more trips under USSB control before The Texas Co. acquired all eight tankers, they had built at their shipyard in Bath, in December 1919 for approximately US$14,700,000 (Lightburne's price tag was set at US$1,837,500).

[13] At about 02:30 on September 12, 1926 while rounding the Algiers Point on her way out of New Orleans harbor for Port Arthur, the stern of Lightburne flanked against the piledriver Vulcan sinking the latter in about 35 feet of water.

[14] In the morning of December 5, 1926 while proceeding up north along Delaware River during a snowstorm, Lightburne collided side on with another tanker, SS Charles M. Everest off Marcus Hook.

The rugged rocks on the beach punctured the bottom of the vessel, flooding her engine room and the No.4 main hold, releasing some of her cargo into the water.

signal at 19:46, which attracted a number of vessels to her rescue, including steamer SS Thomas Tracy and cutters Active, Campbell, Chelan, General Greene and Argo.

At 22:06 U.S. Coast Guard cutter Active arrived and was able take off seventeen people off using a surfboat from the local station, while the captain and the rest of the crew decided to remain on board the ship.

Following the inquiry captain of the ship was censured for his failure to take soundings while navigating in fog, but retained his license and was later put in charge of another Texaco vessel, Harvester.