Gallup was built as the commercial "menhaden fisherman"-type steam fishing trawler Annie E. Gallup at Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1878. In 1917, the U.S. Navy acquired Annie E. Gallup from the Delaware Fish and Oil Company of Lewes, Delaware, for use as a minesweeper during World War I. The Navy originally intended to commission her under her full original name, but on 28 July 1917 General Order No. 314 specified that all section patrol vessels bearing compound names would be referred to by last name only. Accordingly, she was commissioned at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 15 August 1917 as USS Gallup (SP-694) with Lieutenant Bailey A. West, USNRF, in command.