USS Katherine should not be confused with USS Katherine K. (SP-220).
Katherine was built as a civilian motorboat of the same name in 1907 by J. T. Sharpley at Greenbackville, Virginia. In 1917, the U.S. Navy acquired her under a free lease from her owner, the Virginia Fish and Oyster Commission, for use as a section patrol boat during World War I. She was commissioned as USS Katherine (SP-715) on 26 April 1917, although the Navy did not actually take possession of her until 18 May 1917, when Chief Master-at-Arms C. C. Jones took command of her at Norfolk, Virginia.
Assigned to the 5th Naval District and based at Greenbackville, Katherine operated as a shore and section patrol boat in the southern Chesapeake Bay and in Virginias Atlantic coastal waters in and around Chincoteague Bay until just under three weeks before the end of World War I. She was renamed USS SP-715 sometime in 1918.
SP-715 was decommissioned on 22 October 1918 and returned to the Virginia Fish and Oyster Commission the same day.