The first USS Yosemite was an auxiliary cruiser of the United States Navy. Built as El Sud in 1892 by Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, in Newport News, Virginia for the Southern Pacific Railroad's Morgan Line. The Navy acquired El Sud on 6 April 1898, at the beginning of the Spanish–American War and renamed her Yosemite. It commissioned her on 13 April 1898 under Commander William H. Emory.

Antonio López was a merchant steamship that was built in Scotland in 1882 for the Spanish Compañía Transatlántica Española (CTE). A United States Navy auxiliary cruiser sank her in the Spanish–American War when she was trying to run the US blockade to supply materiél to the Spanish garrison on Puerto Rico. She is now the only known Spanish shipwreck in US waters from the war. Her wreck site, in 1,700 feet (520 m) of water off Dorado, Puerto Rico, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1997.