[1] SS Vpered was built at the Stabilimento Tecnico shipyard in Trieste, Italy, in 1898 for Azov Black Sea Steamship Company.

[1] Vpered was converted into a hospital ship when World War I broke out and operated in the Black Sea to evacuate wounded Russian soldiers from the Eastern Front.

[1] On 8 July 1916, Vpered was torpedoed by the Imperial German Navy submarine SM U-38 in the Black Sea between Rize and Batum.

She was not carrying any wounded soldiers at the time, but seven people died in her sinking.

[2] The Russian Empire claimed that Ottoman forces sank Vpered rather than the Germans.