Inspected by the Navy at the
12th Naval District, San Francisco, on 18 June 1917—two months after the United States entered World War I—the steamship was later taken over by the
United States Shipping Board on 1 December. Soon afterwards she sailed for Chile where she obtained a cargo of
nitrates. Delivering that cargo at
Norfolk, Virginia.,
Wilhelmina shifted to New York on 23 January 1918. Given Identification Number 2168, the ship was then taken over by the Navy and apparently commissioned on 26 January.
Wilhelmina was diverted to "special duty" and made her first voyage to
France soon afterwards, departing
New York with a general cargo on 1 February and returning on 26 March. Upon her return, she shifted to the
New York Navy Yard,
Brooklyn, New York, where she was taken in hand and converted to a troopship for service with the
Cruiser and Transport Force. When her extant deck logs begin, her commanding officer is listed as
Commander William T. Tarrant. On 10 May 1918,
Wilhelmina sailed out of New York on the first of six wartime voyages to France and back prior to the 11 November 1918 armistice. During these passages,
Wilhelmina carried 11,053 troops to France to strengthen the
American Expeditionary Force (AEF). The transport's half-dozen trips were all made safely as far as she was concerned, although not totally without incident. While in convoy with six other troopships and four
destroyers,
Wilhelmina was present when the transport was torpedoed on 1 July 1918. Nearly a month later, on 30 July 1918, one of
Wilhelmina's lookouts spotted what he thought to be a
submarine periscope at 07:30. Going to general quarters, the transport surged ahead and opened fire to drive the submarine away. A short while later, when the periscope reappeared,
Wilhelmina again fired at it, with the shell falling 50 yards (46 meters) short. Two weeks later, while
Wilhelmina and were steaming under the protection of the destroyer , the erstwhile Matson steamship again went to
general quarters to drive away what looked like a submarine. Shortly after 20:00 on 14 August, while
Wilhelminas crew and passengers were holding an abandon-ship drill, a lookout spotted what looked like a submarine periscope from the ship and just forward of the port beam. The captain of the transport ordered her helm put over to starboard soon after the sighting, as the submarine moved away on an opposite course. The one-pounder on the port wing of the signal bridge barked out two shots, both missing. Three shots from the after port 6-inch (152 mm) gun followed, until their angle was masked by the ship's superstructure. The submarine, however, apparently frustrated, submerged. It may have remained in the area to try again, as on the following day, 15 August, a submarine periscope appeared some 200 yards away from the troopship, prompting three salvoes which drove the would-be attacker off. In company with seven other transports—including
Wilhelmina—on 23 August, in a convoy escorted by the
armored cruiser and the destroyers and
Hull,
Pastores spotted what she took to be a submarine periscope at about 09:50.
Hull rang up full speed and reversed course;
Huntington and
Fairfax soon did likewise but found nothing. Later that day, however, the enemy apparently reappeared.
Pastores's commander sighted a periscope at 19:04;
Hull sighted the same object five minutes later. The periscope appeared to be about 500 yards (457 meters) distant, three points (34 degrees) off
Wilhelminas starboard bow, and running on a course to starboard of and nearly opposite to that of the convoy.
Pastores went to battle stations and headed for the periscope.
Wilhelmina, too, turned toward the enemy. With the 'scope in sight for about 10 seconds, the time allotted the gun crews of the American ships that spotted the enemy was short.
Pastores got off one round of 4-inch (102-mm) at the swirling water where the object had disappeared. Frustrated by the submarine's going deep,
Wilhelmina, unable to ram, turned aside to port.
Hull, rushing to the scene, soon dropped three
depth charges. on 13 May 1919. Note the two cage masts of a
battleship behind her. Three days later, on 26 August,
Wilhelmina noticed a suspicious wake five degrees off her port bow, away and passing from port to starboard. Going to general quarters,
Wilhelmina fired a shot from one of her forward guns shortly before she loosed three shots in succession from the forward starboard 6-inch (152-mm) battery. Nine rounds came from the after battery on that side; and, as the ship swung, the superstructure masked the forward guns. The wake soon disappeared; both
Pastores and the Italian transport also fired several rounds at what was possibly a submersible, with no apparent success.
Wilhelmina emerged from World War I unscathed, although near-missed by a torpedo on 1 September 1918. After the
armistice, she continued her troop-carrying activities, bringing back part of the AEF from France. She conducted seven postwar, round-trip voyages, returning 11,577 men home to the United States including 2,610 sick and wounded. These postwar voyages were not made entirely without incident either. A fire broke out in a storeroom where blankets and pillows were kept, a little over six hours after the ship departed
Bassens, France, standing down the
Gironde River on 25 March 1919. The fire, reported at 21:52, was put out by 22:10 with only slight damage to the ship.
Wilhelmina subsequently entered the
Ambrose Channel on 4 April 1919 and docked at Pier 1,
Hoboken, New Jersey, the following day. There, she disembarked the troops and patients carried back from France. She began her last voyage shortly afterwards, returning to New York on 6 August 1919. There, she was
decommissioned, struck from the
Navy list, and returned to her owners on 16 August 1919. == Later career ==