[1] The ship was laid down on 10 October 1972 and launched on 18 June 1973 by Halter Marine Corporation, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Later acquired by the United States Navy on 6 January 1974 and later leased to the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics of the University of Hawaiʻi.

In 1977, the ship operated for six years out of Fort Lauderdale and Little Creek after reaching an agreement with Naval Electronics System Command.

The agreement included the testing of Moana Wave with the newly developed Navy's Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System (SURTASS).

The start of the Hawaii Ocean Time-series (HOT) project extended the ship's time at sea with its inaugural cruise in October 1988.