[1] Hesperian was launched for the Allan Line at the Alexander Stephen and Sons shipyard in Glasgow, Scotland on 20 December 1907, and completed the following year.

She was assessed at 10,920 GRT and had a pair of triple expansion engines producing 802 nhp, driving twin screw propellers.

The widow of Canadian politician George Stephens had been lost in the sinking of the RMS Lusitania four months prior and was being repatriated for burial next to her husband in Montreal.

It was while under tow to Ireland that Hesperian ultimately gave away and sank some 37 miles (60 km) from the Irish coast on 6 September 1915, not far from the wreck of the Lusitania.

[6][7][8] To deflect criticism of the sinking, the German Foreign Office claimed that no submarines were operating in the area and that she "probably hit a mine".