The ship was laid down at as North Dock yard hull 143 for F. S. Holland, London, by J. Blumer & Company at Sunderland, England.

Hannibal served in English waters until December, when she sailed for the Azores via Gibraltar as a sub-chaser escort.

In early 1919, she resumed sub-tender duties, and visited England, France, and Portugal returning to the United States in August escorting subchasers.

[5][8] Hannibal remained in reserve during which she was classified as a "miscellaneous auxiliary" in July 1920 with the hull number AG-1 at Philadelphia until 9 February 1921, when she sailed for Cuba to resume survey operations which lasted until 1930.

During the next decade Hannibal surveyed waters near Trinidad, Venezuela, Costa Rica, and the Panama Canal Zone.

Hannibal was decommissioned on 20 August 1944 and was sunk as a bombing target on 1 March 1945, in the Chesapeake Bay, just to the northwest of Smith Island, Maryland.