US FWS Penguin II was an American refrigerated cargo ship in commission in the fleet of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service from 1950 to 1963.

The Seattle, Washington, naval architect Harold Cornelius Hanson[1][2] designed the vessel as a wooden-hulled coastal cargo ship.

[3][4][5][note 1] The Northwestern Shipbuilding Company constructed her at Bellingham, Washington, and delivered her to the United States Army in June 1944 for use during World War II.

[1][3] On 21 April 1910, the United States Congress assigned the responsibility for the management and harvest of northern fur seals, foxes and other fur-bearing animals in the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea, as well as for the care, education, and welfare of the Aleut communities in the islands to the United States Bureau of Fisheries.

[1] Before the fire, Penguin had been scheduled to depart Seattle for the Pribilofs with much-needed provisions on 13 June 1950,[1] so the matter of replacing her was one of urgency.

[1] She made five round trips between Seattle and the Pribilofs in 1952, during which she logged 26,387 nautical miles (48,869 km; 30,366 mi).