With the United States entry into World War I Senator Gerry offered the yacht to the Navy but found that required a contract that would be illegal under current law and an action resulting in heavy fines. The transaction required passage of an act exempting the Senator, Secretary of the Navy and all other officials involved from the law prohibiting contracting between legislators and government agencies. That act was approved 12 May 1917. The U.S. Navy acquired her from her owner Senator Gerry under free lease for service as a patrol vessel commissioned on 15 June 1917 as USS "Owera" (SP-167). The Navy formally leased her from Senator Gerry on 18 June 1917. The converted yacht's Naval crew was thirty-four, two of them officers. Armament is shown in Navy documents of the time as being two 3 inch, 50 caliber guns, a heavier and more capable gun than those in later descriptions of the guns as 6-pounders. All references show two machine guns. Operating in the 2nd Naval District out of Newport, Rhode Island, during World War I, "Owera" patrolled in the experimental submarine zone in Long Island Sound off New London, Connecticut, through most of her U.S. Navy career. Her duties included towing torpedo targets for submarine target practice. In October 1918 "Owera" steamed to the Philadelphia Navy Yard at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, thence, after a run to Boston, Massachusetts, operated in the Delaware Bay area in the 4th Naval District. Proceeding to the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York, in November 1918, "Owera" was decommissioned on 6 January 1919. On 8 January 1919 the yacht was returned to Senator Gerry at New York City. The yacht remained under the ownership of Gerry into the registry published 30 June 1926 but is shown in the next issue, 1 July 1926 to 30 June 1927 as being owned by George W. C. Drexel of Philadelphia and renamed "Alcedo". Drexel had been owner of an earlier and larger yacht of that name, sunk during the war, as . Drexel's ownership was not prolonged as by the register of 1 July 1927 to 30 June 1928 the yacht, under the name "Josephine", had been sold to British interests and would no longer be in the U.S. register. The yacht again reappears in the U.S. registry for 1 July 1929 to 30 June 1930, again documented as "O-We-Ra", owned by Edmund S. Burke of New York.