She entered service with Société Française de Transports Pétrolièrs (SFTP), Paris in 1938 and was renamed Languedoc.

After the fall of France she was seized by the UK, whose Ministry of War Transport contracted John I. Jacobs & Co Ltd of London to manage her.

She was bound for the Clyde under the command of her master, John Thomson, and carrying a cargo of 13,700 tons of fuel oil.

She was sighted by U-48 under the command of Heinrich Bleichrodt, who fired three torpedoes at three ships of the convoy at 0553 hours on 17 October as they passed 160 miles northwest of Rockall.

The master and 38 crew members abandoned ship, and were picked up by the escorting Flower-class corvette HMS Bluebell.