Built at Saint John, New Brunswick, and launched in 1969, the vessel took part in several overseas deployments, including Operation Deliverance, which became better known as the Somalia Affair.

Commissioned 11 July 1942, the first HMCS Preserver served in the Second World War as a Fairmile motor launch base supply ship under the East Coast's Newfoundland Force and was paid off 6 November 1945.

On 12 September 1988, HMS Penelope, a Leander-class frigate of the Royal Navy, suffered a machinery breakdown, changed course rapidly to port and collided with the starboard side of the ship during a replenishment.

The ship sailed for Afghanistan in October 2001, as part of Operation Apollo, Canada's initial response to the Global War on Terrorism.

[10] On 4 November 2011, after returning from sea trials, the ship smashed into a dock in Halifax harbour, suffering damage above the waterline on the starboard bow.

[13] On 19 September 2014, Vice-Admiral Mark Norman announced the retirement of Preserver, along with sister ship Protecteur and the Iroquois-class destroyers Iroquois and Algonquin.

[14] MV Asterix, a container ship, was converted by Davie Shipbuilding to an auxiliary replenishment vessel and entered service with the Royal Canadian Navy in January 2018.

[18] In June Marine Recycling Corporation of Port Colborne, Ontario secured a CAD$12.6 million contract to dismantle the two ships and Preserver arrived at their Sydport facility at Sydney, Nova Scotia on 2 August.