The ship was commissioned on March 15, 1905 from Meyer Werft in Papenburg ( hull number 203) for 224,000 gold marks and commissioned in 1906 for the Royal Hydraulic Engineering Inspection in Flensburg . Until 1919 that was Bussard in what was then the German Reich belonging Sonderburgstraße then continuously stationed in Kiel. In addition to the main task of laying out, hauling in and repairing buoys in the Kiel Bay, the Bussard was also regularly used to supply the lightship Fehmarnbelt and as a start and finish ship during the Kiel Week . The high operating costs led to the decommissioning of the buoy layer in 1979.
In July 1980 the Bussard was handed over to the Kiel Maritime Museum. However, there was a lack of money and personnel to operate the steam drive. It wasn't until 2001 that volunteer steamboat friends started to get the ship going again. The boiler was approved by the TÜV a year later and after further work the main engine could be operated with steam again in May 2005. The association "Dampfer Bussard eV", founded in the same year, then took over the further repairs and operation of the museum ship. On November 5th, 2006 , 27 years after being taken out of service, the Bussard successfully completed its first test drive. She is approved as a traditional ship by the GSHW and can take up to 50 day guests.