A sister ship to SS Arabic, Coptic was built at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, for service with the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company's White Star Line.

On 11 March 1882, she sailed from Liverpool to Hong Kong via the Suez Canal, chartered to the Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company for service between San Francisco, California, and China.

[5][6][7][8] While under the command of Captain Smith – her master from 1889 to 1894 – she ran aground in December 1890 on Main Island at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, while about to return to Plymouth.

[3] In August 1895, the ship carried Wong Kim Ark, a U.S.-born resident of San Francisco who was visiting family in Taishan, Guangdong.

Upon returning home on the SS Coptic he was detained at the Port of San Francisco and denied entry into the country, leading to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case United States v. Wong Kim Ark.

In December 1906, she was sold to the American Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and renamed Persia, but continued to serve between San Francisco and the Far East and retained British registry.