[4] Raylton Dixon & Co earned a reputation for the construction of sound, large cargo-liners and during the 1890s had contracts with all the major shipping companies of the time.

In 1900 she was chartered to make eight voyages to Cape Town, ferrying the Dublin & Denbigh Imperial Yeomanry, with their horses, to the Anglo-Boer War.

In 1904 Doctor Crippen and his secretary, Ethel Le Neve, were aboard the ship and acted suspiciously, causing the master to radio Liverpool, resulting in their arrest on the St. Lawrence River.

In 1914 she was sold to the admiralty for use as a blockship in Dover harbour, but broke her moorings in a gale and ran aground on the Goodwin Sands, her mast remaining visible until 1963.

They produced eight children:[11] Raylton Dixon bought Gunnergate Hall from Carl Bolkow in 1888 and lived there until his death in 1901.