Cook was laid down at the Defoe Shipbuilding Company in Bay City, Michigan on 7 May 1944 and partially completed as a Rudderow-class destroyer escort with the hull number DE-714. A month before launching, on 17 July 1944, it was decided that Cook would be completed as a high-speed transport, with the designation APD-130. She was launched on 26 August 1944, sponsored by Mrs. A. F. Cook, mother of Second Lieutenant Cook and Sergeant Cook. She was commissioned on 25 April 1945, at the Todd-Johnson Dry Dock Company in New Orleans, Louisiana, with Lieutenant Commander D. N. Hamilton, USNR, in command.