From March 1943 "Saturn" operated between east coast ports, mainly Norfolk, Virginia, and Baltimore, Maryland, and bases in the Caribbean such as Guantanamo and Trinidad. She suffered a loss of boiler feedwater and high oxygen content in her boiler water, so in July 1943 the Bureau of Ships gave the Norfolk Naval Shipyard plans to replace much of her boiler, feed and condensate system. There are no known records of whether this work was done, and nor are there records of any further technical problems.