Blue Marlin and her sister ship were owned by Offshore Heavy Transport of Oslo, Norway, from their construction, in April 2000 and November 1999, respectively, until 6 July 2001, when they were purchased by Dockwise.

The U.S. Navy hired Blue Marlin from Offshore Heavy Transport to move the destroyer USS Cole back to the United States after the warship was damaged by Al-Qaeda[2][3] suicide bombers while anchored in the port of Aden, Yemen.

Following these improvements, Blue Marlin delivered the oil platform Thunder Horse PDQ, weighing 60,000 tons, to Corpus Christi, Texas, for completion.

[citation needed] In November 2005, Blue Marlin left Corpus Christi to move the massive sea-based X-band Radar to Adak, Alaska, via the southern tip of South America and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

In January 2007, the Blue Marlin was employed to move two jackup rigs, the Rowan Gorilla VI and the GlobalSantaFe Galaxy II, from Halifax Harbour to the North Sea.