In 1908, part of East Boston caught fire, including warehouses where she was docked, but she avoided damage by being warped away from the quayside.

[6] She had a single screw, driven by a three-cylinder triple-expansion engine that was rated at 847 NHP[6] or 5,500 ihp, and gave her a speed of 14 knots (26 km/h).

She overshot the mouth of Boston Harbor by about 4 or 5 nautical miles (7 or 9 km), ran into a bank of fog, and at 01:00 or 01:30 hrs grounded on a rock ledge about 500 feet (150 m) from the shore between Second and Third Cliff at Scituate, Massachusetts.

Her Master, Captain Ridley, had the watertight doors closed in her bulkheads; her lifeboats swung out on their davits ready for launching; and a Coston flare fired.

[19] The tug Patience, registered in Philadelphia, and owned by the Tice Towing Co of New York, succeeded in getting a line aboard Devonian.

[22] On 11 March 1907, Devonian was at the White Star Line docks in Charlestown, Boston, when fire broke out on the steerage deck in her number 4 hold.

A fire hose burst on deck, and the water damaged machinery and Egyptian cotton from Liverpool that Devonian was unloading.

Fanned by a northerly wind, within half an hour it destroyed four 800-foot (240 m) piers, three warehouses, a grain elevator, and many loaded railroad freight cars.

The fire came close to the slipways of the Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad, which suspended its ferry services for two and a half hours.

The fire badly damaged the Canadian steel-hulled barque Belmont and two US wooden-hulled schooners: the five-master Paul Palmer, and four-master O. H. Brown.

Not all of Devonian's crew were present, but Leyland's Boston superintendent rushed aboard her, a fire drill was called, and a number of longshoremen helped to warp her away from the wharf in time to prevent her being damaged.

[29] On 18 August 1910, the British cargo steamship West Point left Glasgow for Charleston, South Carolina.

They stood by the burning ship, but on 29 August, she sank, 600 nautical miles (1,100 km) off Cape Race, at position 42°20′N 44°10′W / 42.333°N 44.167°W / 42.333; -44.167 or 45°43′N 40°41′W / 45.717°N 40.683°W / 45.717; -40.683 (accounts differ).

[30][31][32] Devonian's wireless had a transmitting range of only about 250 nautical miles (460 km),[34] but the ocean liners RMS Mauretania and Rotterdam received her signal, and relayed it to the Marconi station ashore at Cape Race.

[30][31][32] The news that Mauretania had found the Master's lifeboat was relayed via Cape Race and the liner Deutschland to Devonian.

[33] On 7 September, Devonian reached Boston, having delayed herself by two days for the rescue and search, and landed 145 passengers as well as the 16 survivors from West Point.

[36] However, in December 1912, Leyland Line advertised Devonian's passenger accommodation as "one class cabin service", and the fare from Boston to Liverpool was $50.

[37] "Cabin class" was a concept of good-quality one-class accommodation that Canadian Pacific pioneered in the years just before the First World War, and whose popularity led other companies to copy it.

Early on 30 January, the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique cargo liner Mexico, in passage from New York to Dunkirk, lost her propeller.

In darkness and a heavy sea, Devonian's crew succeeded in passing two steel hawsers to Mexico, and took her in tow.

[43] On the morning of 9 October 1913, the emigrant ship Volturno caught fire en route from Rotterdam to New York via Halifax.

The fire spread rapidly in the forward part of the ship, and she broadcast a wireless distress signal from position 48°25′N 34°23′W / 48.417°N 34.383°W / 48.417; -34.383.

[48] A few weeks later, the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society made awards to the officers and boat crews of Carmania and Devonian.

Soon after she left port, unionised stokers refused to obey officers' orders until the non-union men were put ashore.

[57] On 20 March, she left Boston carrying 1,000 horses for the British Army, plus food, cotton, and chilled meat in her refrigerated holds.

Two Royal Navy gunners were transferred from the dreadnought HMS Queen Elizabeth to Devonian to form the nucleus of her gun crew.

[67][68] Chief Officer Selby survived, and in March 1917, the Massachusetts Humane Society awarded him its silver medal for life-saving.

[70] On Saturday 10 March, she reached Boston carrying a $2 million cargo of cotton for New England mills, and 207 US passengers who in January had sailed as hostlers tending horses aboard the Leyland ship Parisian from Newport News, Virginia to Liverpool.

[71] On 28 July, Devonian, commanded by Captain Trant, left Boston for Liverpool carrying munitions, plus 65 US citizens as hostlers.

U-53 torpedoed the British refrigerated cargo ship Roscommon amidships, sinking her in a matter of minutes at position 55°29′24″N 8°01′02″W / 55.490070°N 8.017240°W / 55.490070; -8.017240.