USRC Tahoma was launched on 10 October 1908 by New York Shipbuilding at Camden, New Jersey.

She was commissioned into the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service after outfitting at Arundel Cove, Maryland on 25 March 1909.

While visiting Gibraltar she received orders from the United States Department of the Treasury to steam to Alexandrette in the Ottoman Empire to help calm American expatriate nerves during local civil unrest.

The Tahoma participated in the Bering Sea Patrol along the Alaskan coast each summer enforcing fisheries regulations and assisting with search and rescue missions.

All hands managed to get off the sinking ship safely in boats and were picked up by the merchant steamer Cordova and the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey survey ship USC&GS Carlile P. Patterson.