Ganges was a 1,529-ton iron barque, built by Osbourne, Graham & Company of Sunderland and launched on 25 March 1882.
Ganges made three trips to Fiji, the first on 27 June 1885 carrying 523 Indian indentured labourers.
She also made voyages to the West Indies, arriving in Trinidad on 25 November 1890 carrying 568 passengers and arriving in Suriname on 23 April 1889.
She was sold to Norwegian owners in 1904 and renamed Asters.
During World War I, she was torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean on 28 May 1917 by the Imperial German Navy submarine SM UC-55 150 miles (240 km) northwest of the Isles of Scilly while on a voyage from Le Havre, France, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a cargo of oil and wax.