Mitchell was built by the Canton Lumber Company at Baltimore, Maryland, in 1919. She entered Coast and Geodetic Survey service that year.
On 10–11 December 1924, Mitchell and the Coast and Geodetic Survey launch USC&GS Marindin aided a United States Marine Corps 500NaN0 motor sailer that had gone aground by pulling it off the rocks and towing it to the U.S. Marine Corps boathouse at St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands.
Mitchell was retired from Coast and Geodetic Survey service in 1944.