The U.S. Navy acquired her on 3 May 1918 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for World War I service as a cargo ship and commissioned her the same day as USS Stephen R. Jones.

Loading another cargo of U.S. Army supplies, Stephen R. Jones again set out for France, arriving at St. Nazaire on 18 August 1918.

From Philadelphia, she was routed to Virginia where, on 8 March 1919, she was decommissioned and returned to the Crowell and Thurlow Steamship Company at Newport News.

Once again SS Stephen R. Jones, she returned to commercial service, remaining in mercantile use until she was wrecked in the Cape Cod Canal on 28 June 1942.

[1] Although, like most commercial ships commissioned into the U.S. Navy during World War I, Stephen R. Jones received a naval registry Identification Number (Id.