Orkney was built by Hall, Russell & Company in Aberdeen, launched on 29 June 1976 and commissioned in February of the following year.

In 1978, Orkney coordinated the clean-up operation after the tanker Christos Bitas ran aground in the Irish Sea.

[2] She helped co-ordinate the search for survivors from the trawler Ocean Monarch off Fair Isle, in 1980 and recovered many of the bodies when the freighter Radiant Med sank off Guernsey in 1984.

During her residency at the Coast Guard's headquarters in Chaguaramas, she saw little naval service as she experienced mechanical and structural problems due to her age at the time.

[citation needed] After sixteen years under ownership by the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force she was sold for scrap in 2016 upon the Coast Guard's reception of her replacement, TTS Nelson II.