The SS
Orontes was built by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co.,
of Glasgow, for the Orient Line. She made her maiden voyage from London
to Melbourne and Sydney, via Suez, on 24 October 1902. She served
as a troopship during World war I, and resumed commercial service
to Australia, including a new call at Brisbane, in 1919. Laid up in
the Thames in 1921, she was sold for conversion into an exhibition
ship in March 1922, and was renamed British Trade. Repossessed by
Orient Line in August 1922, she was renamed Orontes. She was scrapped
in 1926.