Florida was one of the first ships to arrive during the United States occupation of Veracruz in early 1914, and part of her crew joined the landing party that occupied the city.

During the war, Florida and the rest of her unit, reassigned as the 6th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet, conducted patrols in the North Sea and escorted convoys to Norway.

The ship was powered by four-shaft Parsons steam turbines rated at 28,000 shp (20,880 kW) and twelve coal-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers, generating a top speed of 20.75 kn (38.43 km/h; 23.88 mph).

As was standard for capital ships of the period, she carried a pair of 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, submerged in her hull on the broadside.

[1] She spent the next several months on training cruises in the Caribbean and off Maine, after which she moved to Hampton Roads to join the Atlantic Fleet.

[2] These two ships and Prairie landed a total contingent of over a thousand marines and bluejackets to begin the occupation of the city on 21 April.

In July, Florida departed Mexican waters to return to normal fleet operations, and in October, she was reassigned to the 2nd Battleship Division.

[7] On 22–24 April, the German High Seas Fleet sortied to intercept one of the convoys in the hope of cutting off and destroying the escorting battleship squadron.

[9] On 30 June, the 6th Squadron was cruising in the North Sea in support of a mine-laying operation; while on patrol, Florida and several other ships fired on what they incorrectly believed to be U-boat wakes.

[10] By early November, the Spanish Flu pandemic had spread to the Grand Fleet; Florida was the only ship of the American contingent not to be quarantined for the virus.

[12] Florida then joined the passenger ship SS George Washington on 12 December, which was carrying President Woodrow Wilson on his way to France to participate in the peace negotiations.

In December 1920, she made a good-will cruise to South America with US Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby aboard and over the next three years conducted amphibious operation training with the Marine Corps in the Caribbean.

[2] In early 1924, Florida took part in the Fleet Problem III maneuvers, where she and her sister Utah acted as stand-ins for the new Colorado-class battleships.

She was also reboilered with four White-Forster oil-fired models that had been removed from the battleships and battlecruisers scrapped as a result of the Washington Naval Treaty.

[14][15] Florida remained in service for a few years in her modernized form, and participated in joint Army-Navy coast defense exercises in June 1928.

[2] The one-ton ship's bell was saved and transported to the University of Florida in Gainesville, where it was first installed in a clock atop a classroom building.