The craft flew with a payload of 500 kg (1,100 lb) over 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi);[3] each flight carried 100,000 air mail letters.

[4] Two Dornier Do 18 Lufthansa seaplanes christened Zephir and Aeolus were used for air mail flights from the Azores to the United States and from Fernando de Noronha to Natal.

The ship contacted the German whaling fleet off Bouvet Island, then anchored near the edge of the pack ice at 69°14′S, 4°30′W.

[8] The ship was damaged and forced to beach by the British submarine Terrapin in 1944 which was attacking a convoy off Flekkefjord, Norway.

When the war ended, the ship was taken by the British, and on 31 December 1946 it was loaded with poison gas ammunition, and scuttled in the Skagerrak.