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USS Windlass (ARS(D)-4), a Gypsy-class salvage lifting vessel of the United States Navy, was originally conceived as LSM-552 and laid down on 27 August 1945 at Houston, Texas, by Brown Shipbuilding Corporation. Launched on 7 December 1945; and commissioned on 9 April 1946 in Houston at the Tennessee Coal and Iron Docks, Lieutenant Commander Rodney F. Snipes, USNR, in command.
Following further alterations and trials, Windlass shifted to Galveston, Texas, on 13 December, en route to her home port, Charleston, South Carolina. The salvage ship operated locally out of Charleston into May 1947 when she shifted to Norfolk, Virginia in May to conduct a towing exercise with her sister ship, Salvager (ARS(D)-3). The two ships departed the tidewater area for Bayonne, New Jersey, on 18 June, before they shifted to Narragansett Bay to salvage the tug One Wolf (YTB-179) — sunk in a collision in December 1946. Windlass and Salvager pooled their efforts to lift the sunken yard tug from 130 feet of water. One body still on board the sunken tug was recovered and taken ashore for burial.