Lynx II was built as a private motorboat of the same name for Nathaniel F. Ayer[1] of Boston, Massachusetts, in 1917 by Herreshoff Manufacturing Company at Bristol, Rhode Island, designed with Navy patrol service in mind.
She was enrolled in the Naval Coast Defense Reserve on 21 June 1917, then commissioned on 9 July 1917 at Boston for service during World War I.
Assigned to the 1st Naval District, Lynx II throughout the period of the United States' participation in World War I served as a dispatch boat and dispatch and harbor patrol boat at Boston.
She also guided arriving and departing merchant ships through the defensive sea area of the Port of Boston.
She was sold on 2 September 1919 to Kemp Machinery Company of Baltimore, Maryland.