The main task for the ship was sailing on the east Greenland settlement Angmassalik (now Tasiilaq) and was built for that purpose with a 240 HP compound steam engine from Åkers Mechanical Workshop and reinforced hull.

Godthaab sailed for the Royal Greenland Trading Department until it was sold in 1953 to the Faroe Islands.

[1] In 1928 Godthaab undertook a major hydrographical expedition in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait, funded by the Danish Government and the Carlsberg Foundation.

This expedition, under the command Eigil Riis-Carstensen, captain in the Royal Danish Navy, studied the oceanography of the Davis Strait and Baffin Bay and closed the last major gap in the surveys of the waters around Greenland.

The expedition completed a number of transects across from the west Greenland Coast to the Canadian coast, sailed 11,000 nautical miles and made measurements at 188 hydrographical stations, down to a maximum depth of 3,500 m. Scientific results of the expedition is described in 37 papers, published under a common heading in the journal Meddelelser om Grønland.