She sailed for New London on 6 January 1947 to join SubRon 2, and operated out of that base for the next three years training and qualifying deep-sea divers and salvage crews, and escorting submarines such as Piper (SS-409) and Cochino (SS-345) in tests.

On 14 February 1958, Petrel received a distress call at Key West from the submarine Guavina (SS-362), stranded in heavy seas off San Salvador, Bahama Islands.

Steaming to the area and off-loading some of Guavina's oil cargo, Petrel towed the lightened submarine to Key West.

She departed Charleston on 12 July for Hamilton, Bermuda, where she aided the U.S. Air Force in recovering wreckage and personnel from a two-plane, mid-air collision.

Petrel was sent to the area to aid in salvage operations and had the delicate task of maintaining position over the bomb.

A contract for scrapping was awarded to Bay Bridge Enterprises of Chesapeake, Virginia, and the ship was towed from the James River on 5 December 2003.