Noma was a large steam yacht, designed by Tams, Lemoine & Crane and built by the Burlee Dry Dock Co. of Staten Island, New York, Yard No.

[1][2][3] She was built for William Bateman Leeds, the "Tin Plate King", who had married Nonnie May Stewart Worthington in 1900 and the following year sold his tin-plate business to US Steel for $40 million.

Noma's two 4-cylinder triple expansion steam engines, also made by Burlee Dry Dock, totalled 518 nhp, drove twin screws and gave her a speed of 19 knots.

The yacht was outfitted by the Navy with military equipment, including heavy guns, and commissioned as USS Noma (SP–131) on 10 May 1917 and assigned to the North Atlantic.

Upon arriving at Brest on 4 July 1917, Noma immediately commenced operating in the submarine danger zone, convoying troop transports and cargo vessels.

While escorting store ships Koln and Medina, westbound for France on 28 November, Noma in company with Wakiva II engaged two German submarines.

She passed Gibraltar on 26 January; stopped at Taranto and Malta; and arrived Constantinople on 13 February, bringing with her members of the American Relief Commission.

Once at Constantinople her duties involved carrying commission members to Constanţa, Romania 9–14 March; to Varna, Bulgaria 3–6 April, and to Batum, Russia 21 April–1 May.

After Noma's return to Vincent Astor he sold her to the department store magnate Rodman Wanamaker and by early 1920 she was being extensively overhauled and improved at South Brooklyn, again supervised by Tams, Lemoine & Crane.

[3][5] Later that year she was sold to the Trieste-based company Unione Italiana di Salvataggio, in which Bugsier had a 25% holding, then renamed Salvatore Primo and stationed at Messina.