USS Arethusa (AO-7) - World War I

World War I

Recommissioned on 9 January 1918 for service in the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, Arethusa carried oil from the New York Navy Yard to the Azores where she issued it to destroyers and submarines. Upon returning to New York on 5 March, she spent more than a month undergoing repairs before sailing on 10 April.

On 15 April, Arethusa departed Bermuda for the Azores in a group that consisted of some 40 Allied ships led by the light cruiser Salem. Shortly after leaving port, Arethusa collided with oiler HMS H-14, necessitating H-14's return to Bermuda. The fleet tug Conestoga towed H-14 back to Bermuda on 18 April.

Arethusa reached the Azores on the 27th and, but for a quick run to Bermuda and back in mid-May, operated there until returning to New York on 10 June. On 28 June, she began another mid-Atlantic deployment which took her twice to Bermuda and once to the Azores before she refilled her tanks at Port Arthur, Texas for another cargo of fuel oil which she once more issued in the Azores and at Bermuda before putting in at New York on 22 December, one month and 11 days after the signing of the Armistice stopped the fighting of World War I.