The ship was built at Wärtsilä Hietalahti Shipyard in Helsinki, Finland in 1938 and was at the time a modern, icebreaking inspection vessel.

Thus SS Ukkopekka is probably the last sea-going passenger steamer designed for icebreaking still in active service.

In her home port, the lower steamship port of Turku, the coal trimmer soon became the subject of many letters to the editor and received complaints from the residents of apartment houses on the banks of the Aura River, who claimed that the soot from her chimneys made their laundry dirty.

This engine is a popular attraction among steam enthusiasts who come from all over the world to admire the "museum piece”.

After some alteration work on deck and inside the vessel, steamship traffic was reintroduced in the Turku region in the spring of 1986.