Arabia was built as a commercial fishing schooner of the same name in 1903 at Essex, Massachusetts. With World War I raging, the German submarine U-117 created havoc with the New England commercial fishing fleet during the summer of 1918, and the U.S. Navy acquired Arabia on 13 August 1918 from the Commonwealth Fisheries Company for use as a decoy ship in antisubmarine operations against U-117. She was assigned the naval registry identification number 3434 and commissioned on 14 August 1918 at Boston, Massachusetts, as USS Arabia (ID-3434) with Lieutenant, junior grade, Lester F. Rogers in command.