SS Ionic was a steam-powered ocean liner built in 1902 by Harland and Wolff in Belfast for the White Star Line.

[1] She was originally built to carry passengers and refrigerated meat between the United Kingdom and New Zealand, and began her maiden voyage from London to Wellington via Cape Town on 16 January 1903.

She was fitted with electrical lighting and had an open promenade deck and the golden White Star Line stripe along her hull.

In 1914, at the beginning of World War I, Ionic was requisitioned as a troop ship for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and in 1915 she narrowly missed a torpedo by less than 15 yards while steaming through the Mediterranean Sea.

In 1927 Ionic came to the aid of the crew aboard a French fishing vessel, Daisy, that had run aground in Grand Banks.