When it was delivered it was the fastest (making 13 knots on the test run) and one of the grandest local boats in the country and was nicknamed "the Trondheim Fjord's white swan".

During World War I the ship reduced its operations to one daily round trip due to lack of coal, and was run partly on sawdust.

In the 1920s the ship got competition from bus routes on the stretch Trondheim - Orkanger, soon to be operated by the sister company Trondhjem-Orkladal Billag, and throughout the 1920s and 1930s the line lost a lot of traffic.

A freight route was kept up until 1959 with the smaller motor boat MS Elna.

[citation needed] Orkla was sold to a Belgian company, and was supposed to be used on the river Congo.