She was laid down in January 1931 at the Bath, Maine shipyard of Bath Iron Works and launched on 28 November 1931 one of 18 "Thetis"-class patrol boats. She was commissioned on 21 December 1931. She was one of the early ships in the mid-1941 established Alaskan Sector (colloquially known as the "Alaskan Navy") of the 13th Naval District under Captain Ralph C. Parker. During the Japanese attack on the Aleutian Islands in June 1942, she served as part of Task Force 8 under Rear Admiral Robert A. Theobald, Commander of the North Pacific Force, tasked with defending Alaska from Japanese attack. She was part of Task Group 8.2 (the Surface Search Group) consisting of the patrol craft of Parker's fleet: his flagship, the gunboat (); 5 cutters ("Aurora", , , "Cyane", and "Bonham"); 14 YP patrol vessels; and an old ocean tugboat (). TG 8.2 was to establish a picket line to signal any Japanese approach. Their picket was augmented by planes from the Air Search Group consisting of twenty PBY Catalina flying boats (operated by seaplane tenders , , and ) and one land-based B-17 Flying Fortress bomber.