Duncan was launched on 5 April 1913 by Fore River Shipbuilding Company, Quincy, Massachusetts; sponsored by Miss D. Clark; and commissioned on 30 August 1913.

Duncan sailed along the East Coast and in the Caribbean for training, target practice, and exercises until 24 October 1914, when she was placed out of commission at Boston, Massachusetts.

Recommissioned on 22 January 1916, she sailed out of Hampton Roads and Newport, Rhode Island for Neutrality Patrol and exercises in the Caribbean, protecting battleships in fleet maneuvers, and guarding the entrance to the York River.

On 17 July 1918, Duncan rescued from a small boat the survivors of the Norwegian bark Miefield and on 9 October, when one of her sisters, Shaw collided with RMS Aquitania, Duncan took off 84 of her crew, 12 of them wounded, and stood by while Shaw's remaining men took their ship into the Isle of Portland, England, under her own power.

Remaining in European waters after the war, Duncan joined in escorting George Washington, bearing President Woodrow Wilson, into Brest on 13 December.