The first USS Wathena (ID-3884) was a United States Navy cargo ship in commission in 1919.

Wathena was a steel-hulled, single-screw freighter built for the United States Shipping Board in 1918 at Bristol, Pennsylvania, by the Merchant Shipbuilding Corporation.

She was taken over by the U.S. Navy on 1 February 1919 for operation by the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS).

Her holds loaded with 5,754 tons of cargo, she departed Philadelphia on 13 February 1919, bound for the British Isles.

Decommissioned and struck from the Navy List on 10 April 1919, Wathena was simultaneously turned over to the United States Shipping Board.