Launched during the final weeks of the Second World War as Lyngdalsfjord and only completed in late 1949, the ship sailed in both Arctic and Antarctic waters for more than 53 years until shipwrecking off the coast of Norway in 1992.

[4] Further rebuilding of the ship took place in the 1980s at Kaarbø Shipyard in Harstad, where Norsel was lengthened and equipped with a factory for the processing of shells.

[6] The incomplete Lyngdalsfjord was bought in 1948 by the Tromsø-based polar hunting company Nordfisk A/S, and towed to Flensburg in Germany for completion as a sealing and expedition ship.

Although sold first in 1979 to Steinar Jakobsen, then in 1989 to Statens Fiskarbank, in 1990 to Mathisen Fiskebåtrederi A/S and in 1991 to Arktisk Marin A/S, she retained the name Norsel and remained home ported in Tromsø.

[8] In the 1950s the ship was hired by the mining company Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani to serve as an icebreaker in the waters off Svalbard.

Due to her extensive service in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, Norsel was affectionately nicknamed "Polarbussen" ("the Polar Bus").

In the period from 1961 to 1963, Norsel was leased by the Norwegian Coast Guard, manned by naval personnel and armed with cannon for fishery protection duties.

[1][5] In connection with the Norwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition, the iceport Norselbukta on the Quar Ice Shelf in Queen Maud Land was named after Norsel.