Following shakedown off the New England coast, "Roper" sailed east in mid-June 1919 and, after stops at Ponta Delgada, Gibraltar, and Malta, anchored in the Bosporus on 5 July. For the next month she supported Peace Commission and Relief Committee work in the Black Sea area, carrying mail and passengers to and from Constantinople, Novorossisk, Batum, Samsun, and Trebizond. On 20 August the destroyer returned to the United States, at New York City, only to sail again six days later. At the end of the month she transited the Panama Canal and moved north to San Diego.