The seventh USS Wasp was the former yacht Columbia, purchased by the U.S. Navy and converted to an armed yacht serving from 1898 to 1919, with service in the Spanish–American War and World War I. Columbia was built in 1893 by William Cramp & Sons for Joseph Harvey Ladew, Sr. of New-York.

[4] On leaving the yard on completion the yacht made a trial run on the New York Yacht Club course from Larchmont, on Long Island Sound, to New London, Connecticut making a mean speed of 17.85 knots (20.54 mph; 33.06 km/h) and 18.35 knots (21.12 mph; 33.98 km/h) over a deep water segment of the course where drag was minimized.

[3] Columbia was purchased by the United States Navy for $95,000, renamed USS Wasp, and commissioned at New York City on 11 April 1898.

[5] The converted yacht departed New York on 26 April 1898, Lieutenant Aaron Ward in command, and headed south for Spanish–American War duty blockading Cuba.

On 12 May 1898, while cruising on blockade station off the Cuban coast between Havana and Bahia Honda, Wasp joined a small convoy escorted by the revenue cutter USRC Manning and made up of merchantman SS Gussie and tugs Triton and Dewey.

[6] Just before 1500 that afternoon, some of the soldiers from Gussie went ashore near Cabañas, purportedly the first American troops to land on Cuban soil.

Wasp returned fire with her portside six-pounders, carefully avoiding the area occupied by friendly forces.

During that operation, Wasp joined Manning and recently arrived unarmored cruiser Dolphin in providing covering gunfire for the evacuation.

When another landing, scheduled for the following day, did not occur, Wasp lobbed a few shells at an adobe watch-tower from which Spanish riflemen had taken the ships under fire, and then she resumed her patrol station off the coast.

She fired several shots at the signal station located at the entrance, then sped forward to engage the enemy ship.

As the range decreased, American gunfire became more accurate, and all four ships began scoring telling hits on the enemy.

Throughout the first year of the war, the yacht cruised the coastal waters of the 3d Naval District as a unit of, and later as flagship for, Squadron 8, Patrol Force.

In April 1918, Wasp received orders detaching her from the 3d Naval District and assigning her to duty at Annapolis, Maryland.