Built by the Cleveland Shipbuilding Company of Cleveland, Ohio, at a cost of $74,993.70, the ship was launched on 18 December 1891, the lighthouse tender was accepted by the United States Lighthouse Service on 14 April 1892 and operated on the Great Lakes from her base at Detroit until the United States entered World War I.

She was originally assigned to duty on Lake Superior and served there until transferred to the operational control of the United States Navy.

Following the armistice, she was returned to the jurisdiction of the Department of Commerce with the rest of the Lighthouse Service under an Executive order of 1 July 1919.

In 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt merged the Lighthouse Service into the United States Coast Guard which, on 1 November 1941, was ordered to "...operate as a part of the Navy."

Now redesignated USCGC Amaranth (WAGL-201), the ship was stationed at Duluth, Minnesota, throughout World War II, and maintained navigational aids on Lake Superior.