Two days later, however, she was decommissioned and towed to the Boston Navy Yard to have her original Curtis turbines replaced by General Electric turbines. Recommissioned on 25 July, while still undergoing overhaul, "Salem" stood out of Boston harbor on 12 March 1918 for New London, Connecticut, to join a force gathering to convoy submarine chasers across the Atlantic. From 31 March-15 June, she served as flagship for two convoys of submarine chasers, leaving both at Ponta Delgada, Azores, and returning westward. On 18 June, she became a flagship of a flotilla of 12 submarine chasers assigned to Key West to operate against German submarines. Arriving at Key West on the 22nd, "Salem"s force carried out antisubmarine patrols off Florida and as far south as the Yucatán Peninsula through the remainder of World War I. On 27 November, the force was disbanded; and, after an overhaul at the Boston Navy Yard, "Salem" steamed to the west coast. Designated CL-3 on 17 July 1920, she was decommissioned at Mare Island on 16 August 1921; struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 13 November 1929; and, with cruisers "Albany" and "New Orleans", sold on 11 February 1930 to D. G. Seagraves of San Francisco, California, for scrapping.