Built by the Harland and Wolff shipyards in Belfast, she was the sister ship of the Ionic which was put into service a few months earlier.

Subsequently deemed superfluous for the New Zealand route, the Doric was chartered by the Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company between Hong Kong and San Francisco.

In 1895, they were replaced by triple expansion machines, which were more modern and economical, and allowed her to reach a speed of 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph).

An agreement was quickly formed between the two companies[8][9] The Doric then continued her charter contract throughout 1884, and joined the joint service on 6 January 1885, on the Wellington route, passing on the outward journey through Tenerife, Cape Town and Hobart, and to return via Cape Horn, Montevideo and Rio de Janeiro.

[4] In 1896, Doric was again transferred, this time to the joint White Star and Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company service running between San Francisco and Hong Kong.

[1] Doric left San Francisco for her last White Star and Occidental & Oriental voyage on 8 August 1906.

[14] On 23 April 1911, Doric ran aground in foggy conditions and was wrecked near Taichow Islands, Wenzhou, South China.

[15] Once all of the crew and passengers had been safely rescued, the ship was looted by local fishermen who subsequently burnt the remains of the vessel.

[14] The ship in Rudyard Kipling's poem "McAndrew's Hymn" was inspired by the Doric; in a letter to illustrator Howard Pyle he wrote "-but it may help you a little to know that the ship "McAndrew’s Hymn" belongs to is the old Doric, once an Atlantic White Star I think, and now a Shaw, Savill, Albion boat running to New Zealand via the Cape of Good Hope and home round the horn..."[16][4]