Constructed as a commercial passenger ship by Burmeister and Wain in Copenhagen, Denmark, for the Grace Line, MS Santa Inez was launched in 1929.

Following her recommissioning, Bowditch made numerous geodetic surveys in places such as Little Placentia Bay in Newfoundland, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Cuba, and Haiti.

Assigned to Service Force, United States Pacific Fleet, Bowditch arrived at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, on 6 January 1944.

She served as a survey ship during the invasion of Kwajalein and Majuro Atolls (4 February–2 April 1944); the occupation of Saipan (22 July–4 October); and the capture of Okinawa (18 April–2 September 1945).

She continued surveying at Bikini after the July 1946 atomic bomb tests there, returning to San Francisco on 19 October 1946.