Kerkenna was launched on 25 July 1900 at Port Glasgow, Scotland, by William Hamilton and Company as the commercial cargo ship Borneo, and was delivered to her owners later that year.

Later renamed Kerkenna, she was the property of the Kerr Navigation Company of New York City when the United States Army took control of her on 22 November 1917 for World War I service.

Unlike most commercial ships commissioned into U.S. Navy service during World War I, Kerkenna never received a naval registry Identification Number (Id.

Attached to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, Kerkenna carried coal and U.S. Army supplies between British and French ports until 24 February 1919.

She then was decommissioned on 16 April 1919 and transferred to the United States Shipping Board for immediate return to the Kerr Navigation Company.