 Each wheel had 12 curved steel buckets that were wide by long that dipped approximately into the water.She was chartered by the US Navy for World War I service, delivered on 25 September 1917 she became USS "Adirondack" (ID 1270), and was officially requisitioned on 16 October 1917.For more than two years, she was employed as a floating barracks attached to the Receiving Ship at the New York Navy Yard, in a noncommissioned status.