[5][Note 1] Construction of the vessel — like her three sister ships — was awarded to William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia which laid down her keel on 11 March 1912.

[5] On 8 February 1913,[1] Parker was launched by sponsor Mrs. Henry W. Hand, wife of the vice president of the Cramp shipyard.

[1] On 6 April 1914, Parker and sister ships Aylwin and Benham were exercising off the North Carolina coast,[13] about 15 nmi (17 mi; 28 km) off the Diamond Shoals lightship.

Benham loaded the three wounded sailors and sped to the naval hospital at Norfolk, Virginia, while Parker took on the remainder of Aylwin's crew.

[15] In early April 1915, Parker and destroyer McDougal were temporarily assigned to patrol near the New York City Quarantine Station.

There were concerns by Dudley Field Malone, the local port collector, that some of the interned German steamships at New York might try to slip out during a heavy snowstorm.

[16] As a part of these patrols, Malone discovered what The New York Times termed a "widespread conspiracy" intended to supply British warships outside U.S. territorial waters, in violation of the American neutrality in World War I.

[17] After participating in winter maneuvers in Cuban waters in early 1917, Parker joined the fleet at Yorktown, Virginia, in March, immediately prior to the American entry into World War I.

[1] On 26 February 1918, Parker assisted in rescuing nine survivors of British hospital ship Glenart Castle,[23] which had been torpedoed by German submarine UC-56.

She made a cruise to German ports in early 1919 to implement the terms of the armistice, before steaming to the Baltic Sea to assist members and vessels of the American Relief Administration.

Parker was sent to Mersina to demand the release of the pair, and dispatched messages by airplane to Tarsus and Adana to that effect.

[26][Note 4] After making a final cruise to Newport, Rhode Island, in mid 1921, Parker was decommissioned on 6 June 1922.