Tolten was built at the Aalborg Værft A/S shipyard in Aalborg, Denmark in June 1938. This is where she was launched and completed that same year. The ship was 90.9 metres (298 ft 3 in) long, had a beam of 13.3 metres (43 ft 8 in) and had a depth of 5.3 metres (17 ft 5 in). She was assessed at 1,858 GRT and had 1 x 3 cyl. Compound expansion steam engine and a L.P. turbine with SR driving a single screw propeller. The ship could generate 231 n.h.p. with a speed of 12.5 knots thanks to her two steam boilers.^[1]

The neutral Tolten was travelling unescorted from Baltimore, United States to New York City, New York (state), United States in ballast when on 13 March 1942 at 6.43 am, she was hit near the bridge by a torpedo from the German submarine U-404 in the Atlantic Ocean 32 nautical miles (59 km) off Barnegat, New Jersey, United States. The ship sank in six minutes and it was only after her sinking that the U-boat crew confirmed the ship to be Chilean.

All but one of her 27 crew died in the sinking. A fireman named Julio Faust Rivera was blown overboard by the torpedo impact and managed to swim to a loose raft before passing out. He was rescued 12 hours later by USS Larch and brought to the Marine Hospital at Stapleton, Staten Island. The sinking led to diplomatic tension between Chile and Germany with an unfavorable reaction from the Chilean foreign minister and anti-German demonstrations in Chile.^[2] Chile would sever relations with the Axis Powers the following year, declaring war on Japan in 1945.

The wreck of Tolten lies at (40°10′N 73°50′W / 40.167°N 73.833°W / 40.167; -73.833).^[2]