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Built as sealer/research/supply vessel under yard No 39 by the Vaagen Verft, Kyrksaeterora, Norway for Rieber Shipping at Bergen, Norway.
09 Jan. 1974 launched under the name POLARBJØRN.
Tonnage 497 grt, 148 net, 590dwt. Dim. 49.49 x 11.55 x 8.64m, draught 4.78m. Length bpp. 42.4m
Powered by two 9-cyl. Atlas-MAK diesel engine, 2.495 b.h.p., speed 13 knots.
Daily oil consumption, 7.5 ton.
Two decks one hold, cargo capacity 1.455m³.
Loading gear, one derrick of 25 tons. One stern gate and two sidedoors.
One stern and one bow thruster each 400hp. The hull is rounded without a keel, when she was beset in the ice, she will be lifted up instead of being crushed by it.
Registered 01 Jan. 1975.

For some time she was chartered by the French Government and used to transport equipment to build an airstrip in the French Antarctica.

1995 Sold to Stichting Gentu in the Netherlands (Greenpeace) and renamed ARCTIC SUNRISE.
She was chartered and managed by Greenpeace, Amsterdam, which is also her homeport.
Tonnage is given as 949 grt, 353 net. 610dwt.
Fitted out with 28 berths.

End 1996 ready and fitted out for service in the Arctic and Antarctic waters by Greenpeace.
Her first task was during the Brent Spar campaign where it was used to prevent dumping oil installations at sea.
1997 She was the first vessel which circumnavigates James Ross Island, in the Antarctic. Before it was impossible due to 200 meter thick ice shelf which connected the island with the Antarctic continent.
She was regular used to thwart Northstar, British Petroleum’s project to open up a new offshore oil frontier in the Arctic.
Used in the Southern Oceans to thwart the Japanese so-called scientific whaling programme, and chased pirate vessels which are fishing illegally for the very expensive Patagonian Toothfish in this waters.
2000 Maneuvering directly in the missile’s path of a US missile test program to test its “Star Wars” missile defence system. It did not prevent the US for firing the missile’s.
2009 According to http://www.equasis.org Still sailing under this name. Her registered owner is Stichting Phoenix at Amsterdam, and she is managed by Stichting Marine at Amsterdam.
IMO No. 7382902. Call sign PCTK

FSAT SG213

Source: some copied from http://www.greenpeace.org/international . Illustrert Norsk Skipsliste 1982. Scheepvaart 2000 by G.J. de Boer.

2013 incident
Main article: Greenpeace ARCTIC SUNRISE ship case
In September 2013, ARCTIC SUNRISE participated in Greenpeace protests against oil drilling activities by the Russian energy company Gazprom at the Prirazlomnaya oil rig in the Pechora Sea. Greenpeace opposes oil drilling in the Arctic on the grounds that oil drilling damages the Arctic ecosystem, and that no safety plans are in place to prevent oil spills. Earlier in August 2012, Greenpeace staged similar protests against the same oil rig.[7]On 18 September, the crew of Arctic Sunrise circled the Prirazlomnaya oil rig, while three crew attempted to board the platform. In response, the Russian Coast Guard seized control of the ship and detained the activists. The ship was later towed by a coast guard vessel to the Russian Arctic port of Murmansk. The ARCTIC SUNRISE crew consisted of 30 members from 16 nationalities. The Russian government intended to charge the Greenpeace activists with piracy, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years of imprisonment although Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the activists are obviously "not pirates".Putin distanced himself from the case and indicated that the independent Russian judiciary would continue with the investigation. On 23 October 2013 the Russian prosecution altered the charges against the activists, rescinding the piracy allegation and charging them instead with hooliganism. A conviction of hooliganism in Russia can result in costly fines and up to 7 years in prison. According to Phil Radford, Executive Director of Greenpeace in the U.S. at the time, the reaction of the Russian coast guard and courts was the "stiffest response that Greenpeace has encountered from a government since the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in 1985."
The Netherlands asked the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to order Russia to release a Greenpeace ship and the activists who were on board. Russia subsequently indicated that it would not participate in the tribunal since the matter was an issue of internal Russian law involving criminal acts against Russian property.
The ship was boarded by the Russian coast guard and towed 500 miles from the Pechora Sea to the northern Russian port of Murmansk in September 2013. The 30 activists were all released from prison after three months of international protests, but the ship remained in Russian port pending a decision by the Russian investigative committee (IC) until June 2014.
June 2014 was released and handed back to owners.

2020 In service, same name, and owners.

Wikipedia