Initially build as a combined passenger and transport ship for Turkey, the Hugo Zeye was taken over by the Kreigsmarine at the outbreak of the war and completed at a torpedo training ship. Equipped with 8 torpedo tuges, the ship was used to drill torpedo personal for Kriegsmarine surface ships in the Baltic Sea.

In 1945, the ship was used to evacuate military personal and civilians from East Prussia. On one of this evacuation voyages, the ship hit a mine on 14.03.1945 northwest of Fehmann and sunk. All but 5 people on board could be saved.