[4] The Seattle, Washington, naval architect Harold Cornelius Hanson[4][5] – who became quite fond of the ship and referred to her as the "best wooden boat ever built"[4] – designed the vessel as a wooden-hulled coastal cargo liner, with a sheathed ironbark hull that would allow her to operate in rough seas and drifting ice, twin screws driven by twin diesel engines, comfortable passenger quarters below deck, a 160-ton cargo capacity, and a cruising range of 4,000 nautical miles (7,400 km; 4,600 mi).

[4] By 8 January 1930, the grease had thawed and, with a large and enthusiastic crowd looking on, the launching ceremony was repeated and the ship slid into Salmon Bay.

[4] Immediately following her commissioning, Penguin departed Seattle on 5 May 1930 to begin her first voyage to the Pribilof Islands, where she arrived on 16 May 1930, delivering 17 BOF employees and 175 tons of general cargo.

[4] By the end of 1930, after only eight months in commission, Penguin had logged over 20,600 nautical miles (38,200 km; 23,700 mi) and had proven her capability to operate in extreme weather conditions that arrived late in the year.

[4] Local inhabitants on Umnak found Pokrovsky after he reached shore, but could not transport him, and the steamer Starr, although in the vicinity, lacked the charts necessary to enter the bay safely and pick him up.

[4] A case of measles was discovered aboard Penguin while she was at Saint Paul Island in the Pribilofs on 1 July 1939, and she underwent a two-week quarantine.

[4] In 1940, Penguin's crew assisted the staff at the Amchitka field station with electrical repairs, power plant servicing, and the installation of a radio-telephone transmitter and antennae.

[4] Between 1947 and 1949, Penguin conducted cruises involving the study of albatrosses that took her as far as the western tip of the Aleutian Island chain, across the North Pacific Ocean, and as far south as San Francisco, California.

[4] On the night of 3 June 1950, Penguin was moored at the FWS dock in Lake Union at Seattle when a fire destroyed her superstructure and cabins.

[10] With Penguin at the time of the fire scheduled to depart for the Pribilofs with much-needed supplies on 13 June 1950,[10] her replacement was a matter of some urgency, so the FWS retired her from service and on 9 June 1950 purchased the United States Army coastal cargo ship Lt. Raymond Zussman[10] and placed her in service as its new Pribilof tender immediately.

[4] Believing she could be repaired and returned to service, her designer, H. C. Hanson, obtained her and completely rebuilt her, also installing new wiring and equipment during her reconstruction.