May — a 1,100 long tons (1,118 t) steam yacht built in 1891 by Ailsa Shipbuilding Co., Troon, Scotland — was originally brought to the United States by E.D.

Operating out of New London, Connecticut, May patrolled along the Atlantic coast and in the Caribbean during World War I, protecting vital Allied shipping from German U-boats.

As of March 1919, she was intended for eventual service as a flagship, but she ran aground on a reef off Cape Engano, Santo Domingo on 27 July 1919; after efforts to refloat her failed she was declared abandoned on 28 February 1920.

Ensign Tedford H. Cann, USNRF was awarded the Medal of Honor for "courageous conduct" onboard May in November 1917.

Cann found a leak in a flooded compartment and closed it at the peril of his life, thereby unquestionably saving the ship.