She was designed to ply the Baltic Sea with general trade goods, fuel oil in metal tins, fish products and lumber.

[4][5] Until 1963, the ship sailed under Swedish colors and was called Regina, rigged as a three-masted topsail running foresail schooner.

Following a severe fire in 1963, she was purchased by the Norwegian shipping magnates Siegfried and John Aage Wilson and converted to serve as the latter's private yacht.

Rebuilt with a very tall three-masted barquentine rig for this purpose, the ship was renamed Regina Maris ("Queen of the Sea").

[4] Between 1963 and 1984, she was used in many television and movie productions, conducted a global circuits, and underwent stints as a cruise ship, sail training facility, and marine mammal research vessel.

The Vishva Tirth an Indian freighter, was the first vessel to arrive and it towed the Regina Maris to Los Angeles which took about 10 days.

For a number of years Regina Maris was docked in Boston, Massachusetts and was in the possession of the Ocean Research and Education Society (ORES), a local non-profit organization, captained by Dr. George Nichols.

During this time she made two month voyages to Newfoundland, Labrador, Greenland, and the Caribbean, with crews of about 29 scientists and students, the primary purpose of which was cetacean research, in particular mapping the migration routes of humpback whales.

When the organization ran out of money trying to keep Regina seaworthy it is believed that she was sold to Anthony Athanas of Boston's Pier Four restaurant for use as a stationary party ship.

Massachusetts, to Greenport, New York, where Rosenbaum founded the Regina Maris Foundation and began a restoration process with 70 local volunteers in 1991.

Hurricane Bob hit the east end of Long Island in August 1991, and Captain Rosenbaum scuttled the vessel at her berth to save her from being destroyed by the storm and to prevent the destruction of the nearby historic waterfront buildings.

After the storm, the vessel was raised by Captain Rosenbaum and sold for one dollar to facilitate the restoration effort by a newly formed nonprofit organization.

[5] Plans to restore the ship were hampered by the discovery that she was not involved in rescuing Jewish refugees in World War II, as well as the economic impact of the September 11 attacks in 2001.

In October 2019, a group of young environmental activists began a seven-week trip aboard the ship, from the Netherlands to Chile, to attend the COP 25 climate change conference in Santiago.