From: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol. VIII, p 463

Woonsocket

A town in southeastern Rhode Island that in turn takes its name from an Indian word that meant "at the place of the mist."

The first Woonsocket (PF-32)--originally PG-140 and redesignated PF-32 on 25 June 1943--was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1443) on 12 August 1943 at Superior, Wisc., by Walter Butler Shipbuilders, Inc.; launched on 27 September 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Ernest E. Dupre, wife of the mayor of Woonsocket, R. I.; ferried to the Boston Navy Yard for completion ; accepted by the Navy on 27 July 1944 ; and commissioned with a Coast Guard crew on 1 September 1944, Comdr. William J. Conley, USCG, in command.

Following shakedown off Bermuda, Woonsocket returned to Boston for conversion to a weather ship before proceeding to Newfoundland--arriving at Argentia on 30 October--for meteorological charting duties off Newfoundland through the end of World War II and into the early months of 1946. She was decommissioned by the Navy on 16 March 1946 and recommissioned simultaneously by the Coast Guard on a loan basis. Woonsocket served with the Coast Guard until her final decommissioning on 18 September 1946 at New Orleans, La.

Struck from the Navy list on 14 May 1947, the Tacoma-class frigate was subsequently transferred to the Government of Peru. She served the Peruvian Navy first as Teniente Galvez and later simply as Galvez into the 1980's.