SS Dover Castle was built by Barclay Curle & Company, Glasgow as yard number 443, in 1904 and launched on 4 February 1904.

She was built as a combined passenger and cargo vessel for the Union-Castle Mail Steamship Company, of London.

On 4 October 1916, RMS Franconia, while heading for Salonika, was torpedoed and sunk by the German U-boat UB-47 195 nautical miles (361 km) east of Malta.

[3] Dover Castle was torpedoed by the German U-boat UC-67 on 26 May 1917, while 50 miles (80 km) north of Bône on passage from Malta to Gibraltar.

Karl Neumann, commanding officer of UC-67, was tried for sinking the hospital ship at the Leipzig War Crimes Trials.