Massachusetts was built as a fast cargo vessel for the New England Navigation Company by William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia in 1907.

The ship then operated in overnight coastal passenger steamer service through the Cape Cod Canal and Long Island Sound between Boston and New York City.

After the US entered World War I, Massachusetts and her sister ship Bunker Hill, were among eight civilian steamships purchased to lay the North Sea Mine Barrage.

[5][7] As built propulsion machinery was by two four cylinder, triple expansion engines supplied with steam by eight single ended boilers.

Registered crew size went from 60 to 107[1][2] [note 2] Along with her sister ships, Bunker Hill and Old Colony, Massachusetts provided overnight coastal cargo steamer service through the Cape Cod Canal and Long Island Sound between New York City, Boston, and Portland, Maine.

[5][9][10][11] In 1911, Massachusetts and Bunker Hill returned to the Cramp & Sons shipyard for conversion to passenger service and from coal to fuel oil in 1912 with the ship being sold to the Eastern Steamship Corporation.

[10] In April 1917, the Allies formulated a plan to lay minefields in the North Sea to counter German U-boat attacks on their shipping in the Atlantic.

She was the second ship in the Navy to carry the name and was commissioned as USS Massachusetts (ID 1255) on 7 December 1917, with Captain Wat T. Cluverius in command.

[10] After her extensive conversion from a passenger steamer to a minelayer, Massachusetts was renamed USS Shawmut (ID 1255) on 7 January 1918 and departed the Navy Yard at Boston on 11 June 1918.

She completed her sea trials in Presidents Roads, Massachusetts before steaming to Naval Base 17 at Inverness, Scotland, where she anchored on 30 June 1918.

The sea trials had revealed that she and Aroostook – the new name for Bunker Hill – consumed fuel at a higher rate than expected, raising concerns that they would be unable to make a non-stop trans-Atlantic voyage.

Cluverius and Commander Roscoe Bulmer devised a plan to refuel both ships while underway with hoses from the destroyer tender Black Hawk.

The ship carried out the majority of her duties tending the amphibious aircraft off the eastern seaboard of the United States from Key West, Florida, to Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island.

The experiences of Brigadier General Billy Mitchell during the war had caused him to become an outspoken advocate for the use of winged aircraft in military operations, which was then a new concept.

His undiplomatic style hindered acceptance by his colleagues, among the beliefs of whom was that aircraft would be ineffective as weapons against contemporary military vessels.

[10] In early November 1922, after she had finished maintenance and repair at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Shawmut was ordered to Honduras, to return the body of that country's ambassador to the US, who had died in Washington, D.C. After the state funeral in Amapala, Honduras, she continued with the body for burial at La Libertad, El Salvador.

[14] In 1941, Oglala became the flagship of Rear Admiral William R. Furlong, commander of minecraft for the Battle Force of the Pacific Fleet.

The blast ruptured her port hull and lifted fireroom floor plates, causing her to immediately take on water as, almost simultaneously, Japanese planes strafed her.

Chief Boatswains Mate Anthony Zito was able to quickly get Oglala's 3-inch (76 mm)/50 caliber anti-aircraft gun into action to fire on the approaching Japanese planes.

After the order was given to abandon Oglala, Zito commandeered a drifting motor launch and two of his shipmates then sped to give assistance to the ships on Battleship Row.

It was decided that using ten 80 long tons (81 t) submarine salvage pontoons in concert with anchor chains and the aforementioned air bubble technique to right her.

Fifteen to eighteen divers were kept busy for nearly 2,000 underwater hours during the salvage, patching her hull, rigging chains, cutting away unwanted structure and executing many other tasks.

The salvage crew was unable to bring her to the draft depth required by the keel blocks in the dry dock, however, and the ship was unsteady.

Work began to increase draft and improve her stability but during the night of 25–26 June 1942, the pumps being used to keep her afloat were overwhelmed by an influx of water and she settled to the bottom again.

On 28 February, she was moved under tow to a berth at the Naval Supply Depot, San Pedro, California, to begin loading the ship's stores and continue the conversion.

Oglala lay at San Pedro Bay, tending various types of small craft, when she received word of the Japanese surrender, on 15 August.

On 28 March 1946, infantry landing craft began stripping her of material in preparation to join the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Suisun Bay, California.

She was sold to Nicolai Joffe Corporation, Beverly Hills, California, on 15 July 1965 and withdrawn from the fleet 2 September 1965 to be broken up for scrap.