USS Supply, ex-Illinois, was a schooner-rigged iron steamer built in 1873 by William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia.

In 1904, she transported Governor of Guam William Elbridge Sewell back to the United States when he fell deathly ill.[2] The ship was overhauled at the Puget Sound Navy Yard in July 1912 and again from November 1915 to March 1916.

The German auxiliary cruiser SMS Cormoran had been in Asiatic waters at the outbreak of World War I and later operated in the southern Pacific.

The German captain accepted internment of the ship the following day, and the cruiser remained in that status until the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917.

Supply immediately lowered all boats to aid in recovering Cormoran's crew and their personal effects from the water.

Christmas 1917 was celebrated at Pearl Harbor; the Panama Canal was transited on 19 January 1918; and Supply arrived at the Charleston Navy Yard on the 25th.