The Navy classified her as a patrol vessel, but she was faster than the U-boats of her era, which enabled her to serve as a submarine chaser.

[3][4] The combined power of her twin engines was rated at 172 NHP[5] or 3,200 ihp,[6] and gave her a speed of 20 knots (37 km/h).

[7] The Navy changed her code letters to GSKM, and gave her the pennant number SP-130.

[14] She was the second steam yacht called Kanawha that the Navy had commissioned for war service.

[7] On June 9 she left for Europe, and on July 4 she reached Brest, France, in the vanguard of a flotilla of ships that the US sent to European waters.

On November 28 she sighted a periscope closing in on a convoy, and issued a submarine warning.

Two other patrol vessels tracked the U-boat and sank it with depth charges, while the convoy continued undamaged.

She called at the Azores and Bermuda, and then anchored off Tompkinsville, Staten Island.