She had a varied career spanning three decades under successive German, British and New Zealand owners before being scuttled in the North Atlantic in 1945.

[6] On 5 August 1914, a week after the outbreak of the First World War, Schneefels was in the Mediterranean a mile off Europa Point when the Royal Navy captured her and took her to Gibraltar.

She remained in UK Government ownership but was placed under the management of Houlder, Middleton and Company and renamed Polescar.

[2] About 30 miles (48 km) southwest of St Catherine's Point she was damaged by a torpedo fired by the German submarine SM UC-71, but Polescar's crew managed to beach the ship to prevent her from sinking.

[2] The Union Line renamed her Wairuna,[2] which had been the name of a cargo ship sunk by the German auxiliary cruiser SMS Wolf in 1917.

[2] On 5 August 1925 en route from San Francisco to New Zealand Wairuna ran out of coal 550 miles (890 km) north of Auckland.

[2] On 4 February 1933, a day after leaving Newcastle, New South Wales, Wairuna lost a blade from her propeller.

[8] Wairuna was one of four redundant cargo ships that the Admiralty used to dispose of chemical ammunition in the same area of the North Atlantic in 1945.