 She may have been in the half of the American-Hawaiian fleet that was chartered for transatlantic service.She may also have been in the group of American-Hawaiian ships chartered for service to South America, delivering coal, gasoline, and steel in exchange for coffee, nitrates, cocoa, rubber, and manganese ore.However, when the United States entered World War I in April 1917, the entire American-Hawaiian fleet, including "Pennsylvanian", was requisitioned by the United States Shipping Board (USSB), which then returned the ships for operation by American-Hawaiian.