Two double-acting MAN four-stroke diesel engines with Vulcan gearbox gave it 12,400 hp and a top speed of 23 knots.

[1] The Carl Peters was ordered in 1938 at A.G. Neptune and was laid down in Rostock, was launched on 13 April 1939, and was commissioned on 6 January 1940 under the command of Lieutenant Hinzke, the ship was assigned to the 1st Schnellboot Flotilla, in which the Tsingtau had previously served in this function.

The Carl Peters was hit in the mast, which did not cause any great damage to the ship, but killed and wounded several of the embarked army soldiers through splinters.

After the occupation of Bergen, the Carl Peters and her flotilla initially stayed in Norway, where the S-boats patrolled the fjords and along the coast.

On 10 May 1945, two days after the German surrender, Carl Peters ran into a mine in the Geltinger Bay near Flensburg and sank.