She belonged to Yeoward Line, which carried passengers and fruit between Liverpool, Lisbon, Madeira and the Canary Islands.

[4] In the early 1920s the Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company of Dundee built two sister ships for Yeoward Brothers, completing Alondra in April 1922[5] and Avoceta in January 1923.

[6] The pair were similar to Aguila that Caledon had built for Yeoward in 1917, having the same size boilers and engine, the same beam and being only 3.7 feet (1.1 m) longer.

In the Second World War Avoceta continued Yeoward Brothers' service to neutral Portugal, Spain and the Canary Islands.

During German and Italian submarines' First Happy Time in the Battle of the Atlantic, one homeward trip was diverted: Convoy HG 39 left Gibraltar on 21 July 1940 bound for Liverpool, but instead went to Swansea in South Wales.

In Lisbon she embarked dozens of refugees from German-occupied Europe: UK subjects who had escaped the fall of France and had been denied leave to remain by the authorities in neutral Spain and Portugal.

HG 73's Commodore, Rear Admiral Sir Kenelm Creighton, KBE, MVO, travelled on Avoceta.

In response to the new wolfpack tactic, HG 73's initial escort included three destroyers, one sloop, eight corvettes and the fighter catapult ship HMS Springbank.

Avoceta's survivors were Admiral Creighton and five of his Royal Navy staff, her Master Harold Martin and 22 of his crew, two DEMS gunners and 12 passengers.