USS Conserver, a 1441-ton Diver class salvage ship built at Napa, California, was commissioned in June 1945. She arrived in Japanese waters in September 1945 and operated there in support of occupation activities until March 1946. She then went to the Central Pacific, where she was involved in the Operation "Crossroads" atomic weapons tests well into 1947. During the remainder of her long career, Conserver alternated service areas between the U.S. Pacific coast area, the Central Pacific and the Far East. In 1950-53, she was intermittently employed in Korean war operations. The salvage ship was also present during the 1958 Quemoy crisis.

Over the decades of the 1960s, 70s and most of the 80s, Conserver continued her work of salvage, towing and other important fleet support. She deployed to the Western Pacific nearly every year. In 1965, Conserver helped salvage the stranded destroyer Frank Knox. She operated in Vietnamese waters regularly from 1966 into 1972 and was engaged in search and recovery operations after the Soviet Union shot down a Korean airliner in 1983.

Laid up in September 1986, Conserver returned to active service a year later. Her subsequent operations were generally in the Hawaiian area, with occasional deployments to the U.S. West Coast and the South and Central Pacific. After almost a half-century of hard work, USS Conserver was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in April 1994.