She was launched as the German trawler Polaris and after being captured by the Allies in 1940, she was commissioned into the Royal Navy as a war-prize and named HMS Spindrift.

After being kept in storage for several years after the end of the war, she sank at her moorings in Durban during a gale in 1953, leading to her being decommissioned and sold for scrap in 1957.

[4] She was then fitted with concealed torpedo tubes and the Kriegsmarine added super heaters to the boilers to improve speed for short "sprints" as may be needed.

[4] As a war-prize, Polaris was commissioned as HMS Spindrift and was initially used for submarine crew training in Portland[6] but was later converted to a [Minelayer| controlled minelayer], emerging from the dockyards in January 1942.

At the end of the war, she remained in Saldanha Bay until 1948 when she was towed to Durban by the frigate HMSAS Transvaal and was laid up in care and maintenance at Salisbury Island as part of the Reserve Fleet.