She was a three deck steel ship of extra strength built for work in the Aleutian Archipelago where strong currents, distances from supply bases required a vessel of considerable power and coal capacity.

This report begins using the name "U. S. S. Pathfinder," possibly causing some later confusion as the ship was always Coast and Geodetic Survey and never commissioned in the Navy.

[6] Frank Walley Perkins took command June 1, 1898[7][Note 2] and on the 7th sailed to Hampton Roads with a 65-man Navy enlisted crew with Coast Survey officers.

[5] Pathfinder left Newport News on the morning of June 16, 1899 bound for to San Francisco and onward to Honolulu by way of the Straits of Magellan.

Making some observations on the way the ship exited the straits into the Pacific after spending the night of 15 August at an anchorage at Isla Wager known as Port Ballenas.

"[4] On 20 August Pathfinder arrived at Valparaiso, Chile, a city still showing effects of s storm that had damaged the waterfront and mud filled streets, stopping only long enough for mail before departing for Callao, Peru where bunkers had to be replenished as coal was nearly exhausted.

Due to a case of suspected appendicitis the ship diverted to San Diego which was reached on 14 September where the patient, cadet James J. Sylvester, was put ashore but did not survive an operation.

[4] While at San Francisco the ship was hauled out for bottom cleaning, final equipping and some changes based on observations made during the transit.

[12] July 1, 1901 found the ship surveying the Fox Island Passes in the vicinity of Dutch Harbor until October 7 when she was ordered to the Philippines by way of Yokohama and Nagasaki, Japan arriving at Manila on November 18, 1901.

On April 12, 1902 Pathfinder sailed to Amoy, China, for general overhaul and installation of an ice plant sent from New York, returning to Manila on May 26, 1902.

[16] Initially that mission in the Philippines involved an intergovernmental dispute with the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office over charting authority of territorial waters.

[20] After return from overhaul in Amoy, China to Manila on May 26, 1902, the ship sailed on June 6, 1902, for surveys of the San Bernardino Strait and its approaches along the coasts of Samar and Luzon.

[25] On 1 April 1920 Pathfinder was in Manila for repairs with field parties from the ship engaged in topographic and hydrographic surveying, including the Cavite naval anchorage in anticipation of the arrival of a destroyer division in May.

Coal was not available as expected and the ship had to sail to a mine at Sebatik, Borneo to fill bunkers; arriving 29 April after a difficult voyage through reefs and strong currents.

[25] Pathfinder sailed the evening of 30 April for the survey area and ran lines from Sulu to Mindanao before heading to Zamboanga for supplies where they found food stocks almost exhausted due to an inter island maritime strike.

The ship obtained what it could, surveyed westward from northern Mindanao, except for a stop off Palawan for fresh beef, then worked continuously until fuel and supplies were nearly exhausted and the last available sounding reel broke.

[27] In the spring of 1938 Fathomer, an Insular Government owned C&GS ship, was decommissioned and Pathfinder recommissioned with assignment to surveys on the southeast coast of Luzon.

[29] On September 25, 1905, during the "Cantabria Typhoon," Pathfinder was caught directly in the center of the storm while anchored in San Policarpo Bay on the east coast of Samar where she recorded a minimum pressure of 690.12 mm.

[31] The ship was towed to Manila, arriving October 8, 1905, for major repairs including removal and straightening of a number of hull plates and sending the stern frame to Hong Kong for rewelding.

[33] Pathfinder supplied keepers of Tanguingui Light after they had been out of provisions for two days on 27 March 1910 while in transit to Surigao via Cebu delivering mail for the poastal authority.

On 28 May 1915 the survey ship towed the four-masted schooner Alpene that was disabled off the entrance to San Bernardino Straits to a safe location.

In June 1916 the ship, commanded by H.C. Denson, was on the coast of Palawan when it received a wireless SOS from the Spanish Royal Mail Line steamer Fernando Poo[35] that was wrecked in the Sulu Sea.