This was the fourth American ship to use the name South Carolina and the first US all big gun battleship. The only battleships larger at that time were the 18,110-ton British Dreadnought from 1906 and the four German 18,569-ton Nassau class from 1909/1910. South Carolina’s first deployments were peaceful visits to the West Indies, Cuba and Europe. As political unrest escalated in Mexico and Haiti in 1913, she was deployed to the East Coast of Mexico to help protect American interests in Tampico and Vera Cruz. The following year saw her land US marines at Port-au-Prince/Haiti to protect US legation on the Island. After the political situation had stabilized in Haiti, she steamed to Vera Cruz with a landing force to occupy that city.

By the time America entered World War One in April 1917, the British Navy had already cleared the seas of German warships at such battles as Jutland and the Falkland Islands. This allowed South Carolina to be mainly operated on anti submarine patrols along the east coast of America. She set out with other US warships September 9th 1918 to escort a convoy bound for France. A week later, they turned the convoy over to European warships and returned to America. Following the German surrender November 11th 1918, South Carolina returned over 4,000 US servicemen by making four round trips between America and Brest/France. She was decommissioned at Philadelphia December 15th 1921 after only 11 years in service. The following year, the Washington Treaty set about cutting the number of battleships throughout the world. This led to South Carolina and her sister ship Michigan being scrapped in 1924.