Renamed Gold Star sailed from Philadelphia 18 March 1922, arriving Seattle, Washington, 1 July via the Panama Canal Zone and California ports.

During the next two years she served as a cargo ship on the United States West Coast, making three voyages with supplies for radio stations in the Territory of Alaska.

Gold Star along with ground stations at Guam, Olongapo and Beijing provided significant intelligence before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.

[6] She arrived 14 December as the Japanese advanced quickly southward; and after issuing urgently needed provisions to units of the Asiatic Fleet there, steamed by way of Macassar, Celebes, to Darwin, Australia.

[7] Following her arrival at Darwin on 28 December, Gold Star served as a coastal cargo carrier, steaming between such Australian ports as Brisbane, Sydney, and Fremantle.

She had served over 21 years in the Western Pacific Ocean without once returning to the United States, and had carried countless tons of supplies, items large and small, for the warships of the fleet.