The first Blue Ridge (Id. No. 2432) was a screw steamer constructed in 1891 at Cleveland, Ohio, by the Globe Iron Works as Virginia. The Blue Ridge was purchased by the Navy from the Goodrich Transit Co. at Great Lakes, Ill., on 19 April 1918; renamed Blue Ridge on 1 June 1918; and commissioned at Manitowoc, Wis., on 17 October 1918, Lt. Comdr. Edward S. Ells, USNRF, in command.
USS Blue Ridge was then cut in half after commissioning so that she might be towed through the Great Lakes to the Atlantic. She departed Manitowoc on 15 November 1918, four days after the armistice ended World War I, and arrived at the Boston Navy Yard on 28 December to begin repairs and conversion. The ship remained at Boston--probably undergoing little or no work since the end of the war had obviated her service--until the summer of 1919.