Dickenson evacuated personnel from the islands and arrived with the evacuees of Honolulu as the attack on Pearl Harbor began.

The ship was acquired by the United States Navy on 19 May 1942 to be renamed Kailua and assigned the Miscellaneous Unclassified (IX) number 71.

The wreck was found 20 mi (17 nmi; 32 km) off the coast of Oahu at a depth of 2,000 ft (609.6 m) in 2013 by the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory.

[5][6][7] The ship sailed 23 May 1923 under Captain George Piltz, in charge of the Honolulu-Midway supply service for Commercial Pacific Cable Company, from Chester to Honolulu.

In the hold, forward of boiler room and service oil bunkers, were four refrigerated spaces totaling 2,000 cubic feet (56.6 m3).

They supplied steam at 185 lbf/in2 to her three-cylinder triple expansion engine, which developed 800 horsepower [166 NHP] and gave her a speed of 9.8 kn (18.1 km/h).

In June she reached Milne Bay, New Guinea, and for the next year remained there laying cables, anti-submarine nets, and buoys.

The first was recognized as the cable repair ship and the second unknown was eventually shown to be the Japanese I-400-class submarine I-400 sunk during 1946 torpedo testing.