[1] She had a flush weather deck that made it easier to do assistance work during rescue operations which was departure from the design of earlier classes of revenue cutters.

[5] Androscoggin was designed to have a 1,800 shaft horsepower triple expansion steam engine that powered a single screw which gave the cutter a top speed of 13.2 knots.

In January 1910, She conducted a search for survivors of the steam lighter Colombia, which had left New York City bound for Port-au-Prince, Haiti with a crew of eleven.

[1][3] During the bulk of 1911 she cruised the coast from Maine to Boston and arrived at the Revenue Cutter Service Yard at Baltimore for repairs to the iron plate on the bow of the vessel in November 1911.

[1] In January 1912, Androscoggin was directed by the collector of customs at Gloucester, Massachusetts, to go to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and assist USRC Gresham with freeing thirty fishing vessels that were stuck in ice floes.

During the rest of 1913 she spent much of the year patrolling at various shows, regattas, and public functions involving newly appointed Secretary of the Treasury William McAdoo.

She was re-floated with the assistance of USRC Apache with apparently no damage and proceeded to Boston where a Board of Inquiry was convened on 10 January to investigate the cause of the grounding.

On 5 August Androscoggin received orders proceed as quickly as possible to Bar Harbor, Maine, to assist North German Lloyd Line SS Kronprinzessin Cecilie with the unloading of a cargo of gold, silver and all passengers and to see that the steamship did not leave port.

[1][3] On 26 December 1914, Androscoggin was assigned to provide medical assistance to the fishing trade off the coast of New England and Nova Scotia in accordance with an act of Congress passed in June 1914.

[15] Her coastal patrol work was interrupted by orders to convoy HMS Shearwater and several small British submarines from Sandwich, Massachusetts, to Halifax during October 1918.

The return to the mainland involved stopping at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to take personnel aboard and a barge in tow destined for Norfolk, Virginia.

She transported guns and ordnance from the Washington Navy Yard to New London before receiving the assignment at Quebec to escort three Canadian minesweepers when the Armistice of 11 November 1918 was signed.

During this time Androscoggin was directed to Chincoteague Island to search for schooners Bertha and Pocomo whose owners had allegedly been using them to smuggle whiskey in violation of the Volstead Act.

Prior to decommissioning, she was assigned to a short cruise on the Potomac River with a congressional delegation, then the cutter was moved to the Coast Guard Depot at Curtis Bay, Baltimore, Maryland where the crew removed stores and equipment.