USS Rappahannock (AF-6) was a Rappahannock-class stores ship acquired by the U.S. Navy for use in World War I. She served in the North Atlantic Ocean, delivering animals, such as horses and steers on-the-hoof, to American Expeditionary Force troops in Europe.
German service and seizure
The first Rappahannock (Id. No. 1854) was launched in 1913 as SS Pommern by the Bremer-Vulcan yards, Vegesack, Germany, for the North German Lloyd Line. She was the third freighter of the Rheinland class built for the company's Australia freight service line via the Cape of Good Hope. Pommern was voluntarily interned in Honolulu after the outbreak of World War I in Europe and was seized when the United States entered the war. She was then assigned to the US Navy by the U.S. Shipping Board; converted; delivered to the Navy 7 December 1917; renamed Rappahannock; and commissioned 8 December 1917.
U.S. service
Assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service as an animal transport, Rappahannock completed her fourth transatlantic run to France on 16 November 1918, five days after the Armistice. Remaining in NOTS until transferred to Train, Atlantic Fleet, on 4 February 1919, she completed one more round-trip from New York to Europe before being assigned temporary reserve status at Portsmouth in the summer of 1919.