Ordered by the British government, the ship was laid down by the Detroit Shipbuilding Company of Wyandotte, Michigan, under the name War Plum. When the USSB requisitioned all shipping under construction in the United States after the U.S. entered World War I in April 1917, she was renamed Lake Arthur, after the southwestern Louisiana town of Lake Arthur. The ship was launched on 16 February 1918, and completed in March.
