While on convoy escort duty west of Gibraltar during the night of 19 November 1917, Chauncey was rammed by British merchantman Rose and sank, taking with her Lieutenant Commander Reno and twenty of his ship's officers and men.

The ships carried a maximum of 371 long tons (377 t) of fuel oil which was intended gave them a range of 2,500 nautical miles (4,600 km; 2,900 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph).

[7] Reno, named for Walter E. Reno, was laid down by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Union Iron Works, San Francisco, 4 July 1918; launched 22 January 1919; sponsored by Miss Kathryn Baldwin Anderson, daughter of former Lieutenant Governor of California Alden Anderson,[8] and commissioned 23 July 1920.

Resuming west coast operations on her return, she ranged between Washington and Lower California, with occasional runs to Hawaii or the Panama Canal Zone.

On the morning of September 8, 1923, while accompanying the destroyers that would become involved in the Honda Point disaster of the same day, Reno found and rescued the survivors of the steamship SS Cuba, who had run aground on a reef just off San Miguel Island off the coast of Santa Barbara County, California.

[10] In April 1927 she came as far east as Guantanamo, Cuba, and in July of that year she was at Prince Rupert, British Columbia, to participate in the celebrations of the Canadian Diamond Jubilee.