Laid down on 27 October 1936 as the steel-hulled fishing trawler, M/V Delaware by the Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine for the Booth Fisheries Co. of Boston, Massachusetts, the ship was launched on 25 February 1937. Acquired by the US Navy on 9 August 1940 and converted to a minesweeper at the Bethlehem Steel Co., East Boston, she was renamed Flicker on 14 August 1940, and commissioned as USS Flicker (AM-70) on 26 October 1940, Lieutenant H. K. Hall in command. Conversion was completed on 26 March 1941. She was reclassified IX-165 on 11 April 1944.