Culgoa was built in 1889 by J. L. Thompson and Sons, Ltd., Sunderland, England; purchased at   Cavite, P.I., 4 June 1898; and commissioned 3 December 1898, Lieutenant Commander J. W.   Carlin in command. Assigned to the Asiatic Squadron as a refrigerator supply ship, Culgoa sailed out of Cavite   Navy Yard supplying ships and troops at Manila with ice and meat until August 1899.   Overhauled at Hong Kong between 20 October and 18 November 1899, Culgoa returned to   supply duties, making three voyages to Sydney and Brisbane, Australia, for fresh stores in 1900   and 1901. On 22 July 1901 she cleared Cavite 22 July 1901 and sailed by way of Ceylon, Suez, Malta, and   Gibraltar to New York, arriving 25 September. She was placed out of commission 16 October   1901, at Boston.
 
Recommissioned 1 October 1902 Culgoa joined the North Atlantic Squadron and provided   storeship service to ships and shore stations in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico until again   placed out of commission 11 August 1905. Considered for dispostion, she was stricken from the   Navy List on 7 May 1906, but reinstated 30 June 1906 and recommissioned 12 September 1907   for service with the Atlantic Fleet. Sailing from New York 21 September 1907 Culgoa was loaned to the Panama Railway Co. for an   emergency shipment of beef, returning to New York 16 October 1907.

Culgoa cleared 11 December to join the Atlantic Battleship Fleet as mobile stores ship at Santa   Lucia for the round-the-world cruise of the "Great White Fleet". At Amoy, China, and in the   Formosa Strait between 28 October and 5 November 1908, she assisted in the establishment of   wireless communications with the Second Squadron. The Commander in Chief of the Atlantic Fleet reports in 1908: "The storeships Culgoa and Glacier have been in constant attendance on   the fleet, and have most successfully met all demands upon them. They have made the fleet   absolutely independent of the local resources at the ports visited, which was necessary in view   of the large number of men to be subsisted."

Returning to Hampton Roads 17 February 1909, Culgoa resumed her cruise along the Atlantic   coast and in the Caribbean until 1 December 1910, when she sailed to supply ships serving in   European waters, visiting Brest and Cherbourg, France, and Weymouth and Gravesend,   England, before returning to New York 20 January 1911. She put out from New York 11 February 1911 for duty in the Caribbean, where she supplied   stores for ships and shore detachments protecting American citizens and interests throughout   this troubled area until February 1918.

Serving with the Naval Overseas Transportation Service during the remainder of World War 1,   Culgoa made seven transatlantic convoy voyages to bases in France and Great Britain between   19 February 1918 and 10 May 1919. On one of these voyages (10 July 1918) she assisted the SS   Oosterdijk which sank after a collision with San Jacinto. Culgoa took aboard the passenger   survivors and towed the San Jacinto into Halifax.

Culgoa issued stores and provisions to Battle Squadron 2 at Guantanamo Bay from 24 March to   6 April 1920, then after supplying shore installations at Yorktown and Philadelphia, cleared   Brooklyn 2 June for fleet maneuvers in the Pacific. Classified AF-3 on 17 July 1920, she joined   Battle Squadron 2 at Colon, transited the Panama Canal, and joined in fleet problems on her way   to Pearl Harbor, visiting Seattle and San Francisco.

Returning to New York 3 September 1920 for overhaul, she resumed her supply operations on   the east coast and in the Caribbean between February and October 1921. Culgoa was   decommissioned at New York 31 December 1921 and sold 25 July 1922.