[1] Suwannee′s war service included a brief period as the flagship of the commander of the naval base at Key West, Florida, Commodore George C.

On 1 July 1898, during the Battle of the Aguadores, Suwannee, the armored cruiser USS New York, and the gunboat USS Gloucester provided gunfire support for U.S. Army forces advancing against Spanish Army positions on the Aguadores River.

[1] She operated′ on a night station 2 nautical miles (3.7 km; 2.3 mi) from Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca as part of a picket line watching for any attempt by the Spanish destroyers Furor and Plutón to sortie from the bay and launch a torpedo attack against the blockading U.S.

[1] The boat′s captain gave the senior U.S. officer present a cipher dispatch from the United States Department of the Navy stating that the U.S. President William McKinley had signed a peace agreement and proclaimed an armistice, bringing the war to an end.

[4] After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Mayflower again was transferred to the Navy and was commissioned on 10 May 1917 for use as a patrol vessel.

In December 1939, the Coast Guard decommissioned Mayflower and transferred her to the Maritime Training Service in Boston, Massachusetts.

[1][2][4] When World War II in Europe created a pressing need for tenders, the Coast Guard recommissioned the ship in July 1940 as USCGC Mayflower (WAGL-236) and based her at Norfolk, Virginia.