She was outfitted as a patrol craft with 3-inch guns, and assigned to protect commercial shipping in the North Atlantic Ocean from German submarines and Q-ships.

The former Nokomis was the only warship among the hulks of burned and salvaged World War I commercial vessels at the "graveyard" and the last to be scrapped there.

[10] Though purchased by the Navy before significant operation as a private yacht the vessel was briefly assigned the official number 214877.

[note 3] This is compounded by the fact that the unique official number, 214877 in the case of Nokomis II, usually for the entire lifetime of a vessel, through name and ownership changes, "died" with naval service.

[14] Nokomis II was fitted out with special interior design for each space in luxurious style and accepted by Dodge in June 1917.

Aft of the bunkroom were eleven staterooms and a wardroom for ship's officers occupying 26 ft (7.9 m) of length and full width of the vessel.

[3][4][note 5] Babcock & Wilcox water tube type boilers provided steam with two triple expansion, three cylinder engines driving the twin screws.

Ship's auxiliaries were electrical powered and forced air heating and cooling was available when natural ventilation was not desirable.

A third, apparently initially adding to the Nokomis line of yachts, larger one designed by Gielow was being built in 1920 by the Great Lakes Engineering Works, Detroit; however, that vessel ended up being named Delphine (1921) instead of carrying on the tradition.

[15][16] The yacht was purchased from Dodge 1 June 1917 for $510,000 retaining the civilian name to officially become the Navy's first Nokomis 19 November 1917.

[2] After fitting out at Philadelphia Nokomis sailed for Bermuda 19 December with a French submarine chaser JC 319' in tow.

Naval forces in France and increase in the escort duty in French waters resulted in Nokomis being among the smaller and slower vessels of less military value transferred to serve convoys using the Gironde River with a base in Rochefort, a French naval base north of the Gironde.

[2] Benjamin Dutton, Jr., an expert in navigation who had two Navy survey ships named in his honor, was in command during a part of this period.

The vessel was undergoing conversion at the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Creek, Maryland into a submarine chaser.