The first company known as the White Star Line had been set up in 1845 by two Liverpool businessmen John Pilkington and Henry Threlfall Wilson, which had been largely concerned with transporting emigrants to Australia using sailing ships.

The name, goodwill and house flag of the White Star Line were sold to the shipowner Thomas Henry Ismay for £1,000.

Amongst these, was the moving of the first class passenger accommodation amidships, as this was located further away from the noise and vibration of the propeller, as well as being less affected by the extreme motion of the ship in rough weather.

As Harland & Wolff had not yet gained any expertise in building engines, they were built by either Maudslay, Sons & Field of Lambeth, or George Forrester and Company of Liverpool.

Although Oceanic was the class pioneer, her service with the White Star Line was fairly short lived, as, when Germanic came into service in 1875, Oceanic became surplus to the company's needs on the North Atlantic, and instead, she was chartered to the Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company (O&O) to operate on the Pacific Ocean between San Francisco, Yokohama and Hong Kong, a route which she served successfully for the next twenty years, except for one incidence in 1888 when she collided with, and sank SS City of Chester.

In 1895 she was sent back to Harland & Wolff with the intention of fitting a new engine in order to prolong her service life, instead it was found to be uneconomical to do this work due to the ship's age, and she was sold for scrap and broken up the following year.

[2][5] Atlantic was nearly identical to her older sister ship Oceanic in most respects, except that her engines were built by G. Forrester & Co of Liverpool as opposed to Maudslay, Sons & Field of Lambeth.

She successfully completed eighteen voyages, however her nineteenth voyage commencing in March 1873 would end in tragedy: On a westbound crossing, Atlantic battled against heavy seas and strong winds the whole way, the slow progress of the journey, led to concerns that the ship would not have enough coal remaining to make it to New York, leading the captain to decide instead to divert to Halifax, Nova Scotia in order to refuel the ship.

Baltic served White Star on the North Atlantic run for 17 years, except for two brief periods in 1883 and 1885 when she was chartered to the Inman Line.

In 1888 she was sold to the Holland America Line and renamed Veendam, in 1890 she had new engines fitted, and in February 1898, she struck a submerged derelict wreck, and sank without any loss of life.

When the larger liners Britannic and Germanic came into service in 1875, Republic became White Star's reserve vessel, used whenever another ship was undergoing repairs or maintenance.

In 1902 she was sold to the Italian company La Veloce and renamed Vittoria, before quickly being switching to Città di Napoli.

In 1908 she was used by the Italian government as an accommodation ship for victims of the 1908 Messina earthquake in Sicily, and in 1910 she was broken up for scrap, after a total career of 38 years, making her the longest lived member of the class.

In October 1874, she collided with Cunard Line's SS Parthia when leaving New York, causing substantial damage.