Aloha was built as a private steel-hulled, single-screw, bark-rigged steam yacht in 1910 by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company at Quincy, Massachusetts, for "Commodore" Arthur Curtiss James (1867–1941), an industrialist, railroad magnate, and yachtsman.

Soon after commissioning, Aloha was assigned to serve as flagship for Rear Admiral Cameron McRae Winslow (1854–1932), Inspector of Naval Districts, East Coast.

Aloha contributed 12 men under a Chief Boatswain's Mate Whalton to the efforts that ultimately succeeded in bringing the stubborn blaze under control, although not before it did US$2,000,000 in damage.

Aloha sent a detachment of 15 sailors under an Ensign Hall, USNRF, on the morning of 2 January 1918 as the Navy placed Norfolk briefly under martial law in the wake of the blaze.

On 22 May 1918, while Aloha lay anchored in Hampton Roads, a lighthouse tender hailed her and asked if she could care for an aviator she had picked up who had met with an accident.

She then cruised in the Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay area for the balance of June 1918 before heading north for New York City, where on 6 July 1918, Captain H. D. Hinckley of the United States Coast Guard relieved Lieutenant Swift as commanding officer.

Returning to her anchorage off Pier 72, Aloha spent the next few days undergoing the initial stage of the transformation from warship to yacht in anticipation of her return to Arthur Curtiss James; her crew cleaned the ship, shined brightwork, and landed such paraphernalia as flag mess gear, chairs, and an oval table from the admiral's cabin at pier 72.

Her conversion back into a yacht was almost complete when, on 29 January 1919, her crew mustered aft and Captain Hinckley read the orders from the Commandant, 3rd Naval District, decommissioning Aloha.