As the M/V Tide, a steel-hulled fishing trawler, she was built by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Co., Quincy, Massachusetts, for the General Sea Foods Corp., Boston, Massachusetts in 1937. The vessel was acquired by the navy, on 1 January 1942, and conversion to a minesweeper began on 8 January 1942 at the Bethlehem Steel Corp., East Boston, Massachusetts. Renamed Ibis on 21 January 1942, she completed conversion and was commissioned on 23 May 1942.