Sheldrake (AM-62) was laid down on 24 June 1941 by the General Engineering & Dry Dock Company of Alameda, California; launched on 12 February 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Helen Nicolini; and commissioned on 14 October 1942.

After fitting out at Alameda, California, and making a short shakedown cruise in the San Francisco Bay area, Sheldrake departed to join a convoy bound for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

On 28 December, she got underway for Suva Island, Fiji, where she stopped from 7 to 12 January 1943, before heading on to the Allied base at Nouméa, New Caledonia.

After a trip to Efate in the New Hebrides and back, from 17 to 27 January 1943, she departed Nouméa to join the escort of the first of many convoys, this one bound for Espiritu Santo.

For the next 15 months, the auxiliary minesweeper criss-crossed the South Pacific shepherding convoys between bases in the New Hebrides, Solomon Islands.

Her operations were centered in the Solomon Islands for the next month, after which, on 4 June, she departed the vicinity of Tassafaronga bound for Kwajalein and staging for the Marianas invasion.

For the next two months, she stayed in the vicinity of Guam screening and engaging in hunter-killer antisubmarine operations, and putting in at Apra Harbor periodically for logistics.

On 23 June, she exited Apra Harbor and arrived at Nakagasuku Wan (Buckner Bay), Okinawa, late on 1 July.

She exited Buckner Bay on 5 September to join minesweeping operations off the Chinese coast in the area of the Yangtze River.

On her way back, she stopped at Wakayama, Japan; Saipan; Eniwetok; and Pearl Harbor, before entering San Diego, California, on 1 March.

Sheldrake recommissioned at San Diego, California, on 14 April 1952 and sailed to New York City for conversion to an oceanographic survey ship with hull symbol AGS-19.

The third departure from normal Atlantic Ocean operations came in July 1966 when she changed homeports, from New York City to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

She was turned over to the Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility at Pearl Harbor until sold to Flynn-Learner of Honolulu on 2 November 1971 for scrapping.