The rugged construction of this steel-hulled vessel, combined with her speed and endurance, make Grasp well-suited for rescue and salvage operations throughout the world.

The two ships proceeded to hose down the occupants of the protest vessel with cold sea water to discourage them from interfering and disabled its engines by shooting seawater down the smokestack into the engine room, making her dead in the water in rough seas, and thereby ending the morning-long cat-and-mouse game nearly 40 miles east of Cape Canaveral.

Following the earthquake that devastated Haiti in 2010, the Grasp was staffed with a team of structural engineers from the US Army Corps of Engineers and dispatched on 16 January 2010 to the country's devastated seaport in Port-au-Prince as part of Operation Unified Response to assess for and complete emergency structural repairs so that large military and civilian cargo vessels may unload their rescue aid shipments more efficiently.

She is designed to perform combat salvage, lifting, towing, off-ship firefighting, manned diving operations, and emergency repairs to stranded or disabled vessels.

In her salvage hold, Grasp carries transportable cutting and welding equipment, hydraulic and electric power sources, and de-watering gear.

Additional retraction force can be applied to a stranded vessel through the use of up to six legs of beach gear, consisting of 6,000 pound STATO anchors, wire rope, chain, and salvage buoys.

Grasp's propulsion machinery provides a bollard pull (towing force at zero speed and full power) of 68 tons.

Each drum carries 3,000 feet (910 m) of 2+1⁄4-inch-diameter (57 mm) drawn galvanized, 6×37 right-hand lay, wire-rope towing hawsers, with closed zinc-poured sockets on the bitter end.

The stern rollers and Norman pins are raised hydraulically and can withstand a lateral force of 50,000 pounds (23,000 kg) at mid barrel.

[12][13][15] Grasp has heavy lift system that consists of large bow and stern rollers, deck machinery, and tackle.

[13] Grasp has three manually operated fire monitors, one on the forward signal bridge, one on the aft signal bridge, and one on the forecastle, that can deliver up to 1,000 US gallons (3,800 L) per minute of seawater or aqueous film forming foam (AFFF)[13] When originally built, Grasp had a fourth remotely controlled fire monitor mounted on her forward kingpost,[7] but this was later removed.