18/PG-18) was launched 11 October 1904, by Gas Engine and Power Co. and Charles L. Seabury Co., Morris Heights, New York; sponsored by Miss Anna May Yeiser; and commissioned 2 September 1905.

Paducah was ordered north to prepare at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for European service in World War I, for which she sailed from New York 29 September 1917.

She reached Gibraltar 27 October, and based there as convoy escort to North Africa, Italy, the Azores, and Madeira.

[2] Paducah returned to the East Coast of the United States in early 1941, and through World War II, trained Naval Armed Guard gunners in Chesapeake Bay, thus giving vital service to the Merchant Marine's crucial World War II assignment.

Decommissioning 7 September 1945, Paducah transferred to the Maritime Commission 19 December 1946, and was sold the same day to Maria Angelo, Miami, Florida.

She was refurbished sufficiently to sail as an Israeli merchant ship and made one trip in late 1948 from Haifa to Naples, Italy.