USS Bowditch (AG 30) was first launched in 1929 by Burmeister and Wain in Copenhagen, Denmark, as the passenger ship Santa Inez. She was later purchased by the United States Navy on 4 March 1940 and temporarily commissioned on 12 March 1940. She was outfitted as a surveying vessel by the Norfolk Navy Yard and commissioned again on 1 July 1940, with Commander E. E. Duval in command. Bowditch left San Francisco for Norfolk 23 November and was decommissioned there 31 January 1947. She was transferred to the Maritime Commission 9 June 1948.