The ship was laid down as Boxelder (YN-80), a net tender of the, on 14 September 1943 at Barbour Boat Works in New Bern, North Carolina. On 17 January 1944, while still under construction, the ship was reclassified as a net laying ship and redesignated AN-74. Boxelder was launched on 20 July and completed on 19 December.
After delivery to the U.S. Navy on 21 December, she was transferred to the United Kingdom under Lend-Lease the same day and commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Precise (Z285). Upon completion of wartime duty with the United Kingdom, she was returned to the U.S. Navy on 14 December 1945. Struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 28 March 1946, she was transferred to the United States Maritime Commission on 10 April 1947 and sold.