In the early 1930s, the Polish Navy succumbed to the trend of building large minelayers capable of operating independently. The ship was supposed to have weapons that would not be inferior to those of a destroyer and to serve as a training ship in peacetime. Their new minelayer was laid down in 1934, launched two years later, and entered service in 1938. In the event of hostilities, Gryf was tasked with setting up a mining bank to protect the only Polish seaport of Gdynia from amphibious assault. On September 1, 1939, the first day of World War II, the ship was damaged by an air attack. Two days later, she came under artillery fire from German destroyers and suffered another air attack. She received several hits from aerial bombs and sank.