Scandinavia was built as a civilian motorboat of the same name by the G. T. Taylor Marine Railway at Norfolk, Virginia, in 1916.[1] [2]
The U.S. Navy acquired Scandinavia from Bie and Schiott of Baltimore, Maryland, on either 3[2] or 5[1] October 1918 (sources disagree) for World War I service in the section patrol. The Navy commissioned her on 5 October 1918 as USS Scandinavia (SP-3363).[1] [2]
The Navy assigned Scandinavia to duty with the Naval Overseas Transportation Service district supervisor at Baltimore for service as a dispatch boat and pilot boat.[1] She carried out these duties during the final five and a half weeks of and for a few months in its immediate aftermath.[1] On 21 May 1919, she was decommissioned, stricken from the Navy list, and transferred to the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey.[1] [2]
The U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey commissioned the vessel as USC&GS Scandinavia and placed her in service as a survey launch.[3] [4] Photographs of Scandinavia during her Coast and Geodetic Survey career show her performing wire-drag operations in support of hydrographic survey work in the Territory of Alaska in 1920[3] and operating in Southeast Alaska in 1927.[4]