[1] As U.S. relations with Spain deteriorated in 1898, Armeria was transferred to the United States Navy on 24 March 1898 for anticipated war service.

In early June 1898, Armeria was operating off the north coast of Cuba with the armed yacht USS Scorpion and the steamer USS Supply when the gunboat USS Eagle misidentified them as a Spanish Navy squadron;[1] the mistaken report delayed the departure from the United States of the United States Army's Fifth Army Corps for landings on Cuba by six days while U.S. Navy forces verified the actual location of Spanish Navy warships.

Sources agree that the tug Pioneer cut Haydn Brown loose in the Gulf of Alaska during a storm and that Haydn Brown drifted for two days with Pioneer in pursuit before being wrecked on rocks at the southern tip of Montague Island on the coast of Southcentral Alaska with the loss of seven of the eight people on board.

[2] According to this version of events, the steamer Admiral Sampson responded to Armeria′s distress signal and rescued Armeria′s entire crew of 36 plus the Haydn Brown survivor she had taken aboard.

[2] In a different account of events, other sources claim that Pioneer cut Haydn Brown loose on 16 May,[3] that Haydn Brown was wrecked on Montague Island on 18 May,[3] and that Armeria successfully rescued Haydn Brown′s lone survivor;[3] Armeria then proceeded to Cape Hinchinbrook Light near the south end of Hinchinbrook Island off Southcentral Alaska to deliver coal and supplies and was herself wrecked when she struck an uncharted submerged rock off Hinchinbrook Island on 20 May 1912.