The ship was built in 1897 by the Earle Company at Hull for the Great Eastern Railway.

[2] She was renamed HMS Louvain in 1915 and was used by the Royal Navy in World War I.

Later a Dutch ship found a body floating in the sea and from the items and clothes recovered the remains were identified as Diesel's.

[3] In 1915 Dresden was taken over by the British Admiralty as an armed boarding steamer and renamed HMS Louvain.

[2] On 21 January 1918, she was torpedoed by the Imperial German Navy submarine SM UC-22 in the Aegean Sea[4] with the loss of seven officers and 217 men.