 Prevail recommissioned 1 April 1952, was reclassified as USS "Prevail" (AGS–20), and underwent conversion to a survey ship at New York Naval Shipyard.Reporting in late August to Commander, Hydrographic Survey Group 1, in October, she undertook her first surveying assignment in the Cape Hatteras area.From 1953 to 1956 she conducted survey and cable laying operations in the Caribbean, along the Southern and Eastern coasts of the United States north to Nova Scotia, and in the South Atlantic Ocean.