Along with her fleetmates Himalaya, Arcadia and Chusan, Iberia mainly provided passenger service between the United Kingdom and Australasia.

Iberia was constructed at the Belfast shipyard of Harland and Wolff and originally provided service between London and Sydney via the Suez Canal.

Iberia eventually ran into numerous problems, including collisions with other ships, frequent machinery breakdowns, and fuel leaks.

For this reason, Iberia was taken out of service in 1972, a full year before her sister ships were decommissioned; all of them were scrapped at a breaker in southern Taiwan.

During World War II, several passenger ships of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company had been sunk carrying troops for the Allies.

Breakfast was being served at the time and passengers in the 1st Class Dining Room were given a fine view of the waters of the Canal as she listed about 15 degrees to port.

Along with Chusan, Iberia was refitted in 1961 by John I. Thornycroft & Company in Southampton, Hampshire, UK, where she was fitted with air conditioning.

Later, as the ship was leaving Auckland harbour, salt water got into the pipes of the cooling system and one of the electric generators broke down.

[4] On 10 June 1966 her turbine couplings failed off the coast of Kobe, Japan, and in 1967, in Funchal, Madeira Island, Portugal, she collided with the dock.