The ship's long career in cruising began in 1958 in the ownership of the Incres Steamship Company, who had her extensively remodelled and renamed her Victoria.

In 1935 Union-Castle ordered a pair of 15,000 GRT "intermediate" passenger liners for its service between Britain and South Africa.

[4] Dunnottar Castle began her maiden voyage from Southampton to Cape Town in July 1936.

On her return she began her regular service between Tilbury and South Africa, and also as supply ship for Saint Helena.

[citation needed] From December 1939 Dunnottar Castle escorted SL convoys from Freetown in Sierra Leone to Liverpool.

[8] In 1942 the Admiralty returned Dunnottar Castle to Union-Castle and the Ministry of War Transport had her refitted as a troop ship.

In November 1942 she carried troops in Convoy KMF 2 to Algiers[8] for Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of Vichy French North Africa.

On 15 September Dunnottar Castle left Liverpool to join Convoy KMF 24, which took advantage of the armistice to reach the eastern Mediterranean.

After a week in Bombay she joined Convoy BM 100 to Colombo in Ceylon, and then continued unescorted to Australia and New Zealand.

She spent most of the rest of 1945 sailing between Britain and Mediterranean ports in Malta, Italy, Palestine and France, apart from one trip to Bergen in Norway in late August.

[8] Dunnottar Castle remained in UK Government service until 1948, when Union-Castle had her comprehensively overhauled.

[citation needed] In 1949 she resumed her route between London and South Africa, but without her sister Dunvegan Castle, which had been sunk by the German submarine U-46 in 1942 during the Battle of the Atlantic.

The telegram from Captain Hunt to Dr J. L. B. Smith noting the discovery of the second coelacanth in the Comoros reached him when the ship stopped in Durban on 24 December 1952.

Incres Steamship Co bought Dunnottar Castle and had her substantially remodelled as a cruise ship at the Wilton-Fijenoord shipyard near Rotterdam.

In 1964 she was sold to Victoria SS Co of Monrovia, a subsidiary of Swedish company Clipper Line of Malmö.

Chandris used her for Caribbean and European cruises until 1993, with a minor refurbishment in 1987 when Jade deck was created by converting storerooms into 38 passenger cabins.