In 1920, she returned to civilian service with the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company, but in 1921, the British Government chartered her as a troop ship.

[3][4] On 28 January 1904, seven months before Victorian was launched, the Government of Canada announced it had awarded Allan Line a transatlantic mail contract.

Four Allan Line ships were to provide a regular scheduled service: the 10,576 GRT liners Bavarian and Tunisian, and the new Victorian and Virginian.

Her boilers fed steam at 180 pounds per square inch (12 bar) to the high-pressure Parsons turbine driving her centre shaft.

[10] On 16 March, it was reported that Victorian had achieved 19.5 knots (36 km/h) on sea trials on the Firth of Clyde,[11] with her turbines developing some 12,000 shaft horsepower and turning the screws at 260 RPM.

[3] She entered service a week later, and before the end of the year had set an eastbound record of five days and five hours from Rimouski in Quebec to Moville in Ireland, which stood for some time.

The pair were a commercial success, and after some adjustments to her machinery, they maintained a regular transatlantic service between Britain, Ireland and Canada until August 1914.

[3] On 1 September 1905, Victorian was reported to have run aground at Cape St. Charles, Labrador on an eastbound crossing, as dense smoke from forest fires had impaired navigation.

She had 19 feet (6 m) of water in her number two hold, her 350 passengers were taken off to continue their journey on Allan Line's 10,576 GRT liner Bavarian a week later,[14][15] and her mails were taken off and sent eastbound via New York.

[16] On a westbound voyage on the morning of 11 August 1911, 57 of the stewards of Victorian's first and second class dining saloons refused an instruction to help put ashore mail at Rimouski.

The British Admiralty had been converting passenger liners into armed merchant cruisers since shortly before the war, and on 6 August listed eight more to be requisitioned, including Victorian.

Her patrols took her to the Norwegian Sea in 1915, around the Faroe Islands and the northern part of the Western Approaches in 1916 and the same plus the Icelandic coast of the Denmark Strait in the first half of 1917.

Cammell, Laird refitted Victorian for civilian service, and on 13 April 1920 she resumed her old route between Liverpool, Quebec and Montreal.

[26] In 1922, the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company converted her to oil-burning and replaced her original direct-drive turbines with new ones with single-reduction gearing, and Canadian Pacific renamed her Marloch.

[28] On 26 June 1925, Marloch was in the Saint Lawrence River at Quebec when the tug Ocean King approached to receive a hawser and tow her.

Ocean King capsized, the cold water of the river caused her boilers to explode, and all nine crew of the tug were killed.

[29][30] On 3 February 1926, in fog in the Scheldt off Vlissingen, Marloch collided with the 1,655 GRT UK cargo ship Whimbrel, which was holed on her starboard quarter and sank.