Constructed for use by POFI, Charles H. Gilbert was a (sources give both lengths)Commercial Fisheries Review, December 1960, p. 29, gives her length in 1960 as and notes that she as lengthened by in 1953, indicating that her original length in 1952 was . steel-hulled research and experimental fishing vessel especially designed for use in investigating tuna fisheries in the mid-Pacific Ocean.Commercial Fisheries Review, July 1952, p. 30. She was outfitted for longline fishing, a method Japanese fishermen had used for tuna fishing for centuries and which the FWS hoped to adapt to Western mechanical fishing techniques, in contrast to the Japanese method of longlining by hand.Commercial Fisheries Review, September 1952, p. 66. The FWS accepted her at Tacoma, Washington, on 30 April 1952,Commercial Fisheries Review, June 1952, p. 29. returning POFI to its authorized strength of three research vessels, and assigned her the hull number FWS 1003.Commercial Fisheries Review, February 1963, photograph of Charles H. Gilbert showing hull number on bow, p. 22.
