Black Hawk was launched in 1913 as SS Santa Catalina by William Cramp & Sons Ship and Engine Building Co., Philadelphia; purchased by the U.S. Navy on 3 December 1917; and commissioned 15 May 1918.

Assigned as tender and flagship to the Mine Force, Black Hawk departed Boston in June 1918 to take station at Inverness, Scotland.

She remained there until the end of World War I and then shifted her base to Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, for the North Sea mine sweep.

She served mainly in Caribbean and Panamanian waters until June 1922 when she left Newport, Rhode Island, via the Suez Canal, for the Asiatic Fleet.

Black Hawk served in the Far East tending vessels at Okinawa and in China (specifically at Tsingtao)[2] until 20 May 1946 when she headed home for the last time.