 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.On 13 September 1918, "Pennsylvanian" was transferred to the U.S. Navy at New York and commissioned USS "Pennsylvanian" (ID-3511) the same day.