She was constructed for the U.S. Navy during World War II and her assignment was to provide liquids, such as fuel or water, to ships in the forward battle areas.

Following shakedown in Chesapeake Bay, Severn departed the U.S. East Coast for the Panama Canal and duty as a fresh water carrier in the Pacific.

During March, Severn filled her cargo tanks with water at Guam and offloaded at Ulithi—into ships staging for the Okinawa campaign.

In April, she continued to focus her operations on Ulithi, which she left only to rendezvous with U.S. 5th Fleet units at sea to return to the Marianas to refill her cargo tanks.

There, into October, she provided fresh water to units of Joint Task Force 1 during Operation Crossroads, the atomic test series conducted that summer at Bikini Atoll.

At mid-month, Severn sailed for Japan where she joined ServRon 3 and commenced shuttling fuel between Japanese and Korean ports.

At the end of that month, she proceeded to the Puget Sound Navy Yard for tank cleaning and voyage repairs; then, in early April, moved south to San Diego, California, to complete inactivation.

Despite the outbreak of hostilities in Korea, she was decommissioned as scheduled on 3 July but was soon reactivated again as that conflict drew available shipping into the Pacific and produced unfilled demands in other areas.

Homeported at Newport, Rhode Island, Severn operated along the east coast and in the Puerto Rican area into the fall and, in November, was deployed, for the first time, to the Mediterranean for duty with the U.S. 6th Fleet.