Mundelta was built as the commercial cargo ship SS Mundelta in 1917 at Newport News, Virginia, by Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company for the Munson Steamship Line of New York City.

Assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, Mundelta departed New York City in convoy on 8 May 1918, docking at Le Havre, France, on 20 May 1918 to debark United States Army supplies.

At New Orleans on 11 February 1919, Mundelta simultaneously was decommissioned, transferred to the United States Shipping Board, and returned to the Munson Steamship Line.

Seized by Japan in China at the beginning of World War II in December 1941, she was placed in Japanese service as Rizan Maru.

The U.S. Navy submarine USS Searaven (SS-196) torpedoed and sank Rizan Maru in the North Pacific Ocean on 21 September 1944.