When World War I began in August 1914, Mark was in Japan and left Kobe with 4,000 t of coal for the Squadron of Admiral Spee.

Supplying the ships of the Imperial Navy at Pagan Island, she at last served for some days the auxiliary cruisers SMS Prinz Eitel Friedrich and Cormoran.

On 7 October 1914 she took refuge at Manila on Luzon in the Philippine Islands, then a neutral territory of the United States, to avoid capture or destruction by Allied naval forces.

Renamed SS Suwanee, she served as an American civilian cargo ship through the end of World War I on 11 November 1918 and into early 1919.

One documented [2] crossing departed from Newport News, Virginia with a cargo of 795 animals (horses & mules) under the charge of Lieutenant Ervin A. Froshaug, Veterinary Reserve Corps., and 85 enlisted sailors under the command of Captain J.M.