SS Athenic was a British passenger liner built by Harland & Wolff shipyards for the White Star Line in 1901.

Athenic was the first of three identical sister ships which were built for the profitable freight and passenger service from London to Wellington, New Zealand.

They were the first orders of the White Star Line after its takeover by J. P. Morgan's IMM Co. On 12 February 1902, she sailed from London on her maiden voyage to Wellington.

Following a route similar to that of White Star's Jubilee Class service to Australia, Athenic and her sisters provided service to South Africa and Tasmania as well via the Canary Islands, calling at Cape Town before crossing the Indian Ocean, after which she called at the Tasmanian capital of Hobart before making port at Wellington on 27 March.

On 23 September 1914 she was in Lyttelton (Christchurch) in the South Island of New Zealand, where as one of the transports carrying what was known collectively as the "Main Body", she took on board the following units of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force: Headquarters, Mounted Rifles Brigade, the Canterbury Mounted Rifles Regt.