 Following further alterations and trials, "Windlass" shifted to Galveston, Texas, on 13 December, en route to her home port, Charleston, South Carolina.The salvage ship operated locally out of Charleston into May 1947 when she shifted to Norfolk, Virginia in May to conduct a towing exercise with her sister ship, .The two ships departed the tidewater area for Bayonne, New Jersey, on 18 June, before they shifted to Narragansett Bay to salvage the tug — sunk in a collision in December 1946.