[2] Her unrefueled range at 13 knots was 10,000 miles (16,000 km)[1] Narragansett's aft deck is largely open to accommodate a number of different roles.

[2] The towing system can accommodate either wire rope or synthetic-fiber hawsers and produce as much as 90 short tons of bollard pull.

Special electronic equipment was embarked to listen for the beacon signals produced by the flight recorders, as well as a deep-diving remotely controlled submersible.

The tug was harassed by Soviet ships while executing her search patterns and was ultimately unsuccessful in recovering the flight recorders.

[7] In April 1984 the ship assisted in refloating USS Barbour County which was beached at the Silver Strand Amphibious Boat Area in Coronado, California.

Nine people were killed when the cargo door of United Airlines Flight 811 blew off shortly after the plane took off from Hawaii.

Narragansett laid out a grid of eight transponders on the sea bed which were used to chart the movements of a Navy submersible hunting for the door.

[16] The Naval Air Weapons Command leased Narragansett to CSC Corporation, which in turn, subleased the vessel to Donjon Marine Company, Incorporated.

[20][21] During this period, Narragansett and ex-Tripoli were based at Pearl Harbor, Mare Island,[22] and finally Pier 80, San Francisco.

[23] By 2016, Narragansett had been assigned to the training support vessel squadron of Carrier Strike Group 4[16][24] and is now based at JEB Little Creek.

PAE Applied Technologies, LLC was the first, while two other contractors ran the other ships in the training support vessel squadron.

[27] On 9 March 2018 Great Eastern Group, Inc. was awarded a contract to crew, maintain, and operate all the ships of the training support vessel squadron.

[28][29] On 12 April 2021 Great Eastern Group was awarded a new five-year contract for all the ships in the squadron, including Narragansett.