"Goldsborough" departed New York on 12 August 1940, to tend amphibious planes on Neutrality Patrol in waters ranging from Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the United States Virgin Islands, to Trinidad, British West Indies. She returned to Norfolk 23 January 1941 for repairs; conducted a cruise to the coast of Mexico and returned (3 March – 3 April), then served the Patrol Wing Support Force, Patrol Squadrons, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, at Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland; Reykjavík, Iceland; and Gungnat Bay, Greenland. She arrived at Norfolk from Greenland on 13 October 1941 for repairs, and then proceeded to Seamour Bay, Galapagos Islands, arriving 23 December 1941. Here she tended amphibious patrol planes of Patrol Squadron 3, sometimes steaming down the coast of the Americas as far as Valparaíso, Chile, with time-out for service as a simulated target in Panama Bay.