It was built in 1872 in Dumbarton, Great Britain, especially for the Hajj pilgrim trade, and was owned by Singapore-based merchant Syed Mahomed Alsagoff.

A nephew of the ship's owner, Syed Omar al-Sagoff (Arabic: سيد عمر السقاف Saiyid ʿUmar al-Saqqāf) was among the passengers.

It was again stopped for repairs, during which time it began to roll heavily, its boilers broke loose and all connection pipes were washed away, rendering its engines ineffective.

On 7 August, while Jeddah drifted in the Indian Ocean off Socotra and Cape Guardafui, Captain Clark and most of the ship's officers and crew prepared to launch the lifeboats.

Thereafter the remaining 20 crew members, including two officers, with the help of the passengers, bailed the water out of the ship's engine room.

Antenor approached Jeddah, assisted Jeddah′s crew and passengers in making her stable, and then towed her into the port of Aden, where she arrived on 11 August to much astonishment.

[7] In all, the official inquiry established the number of people rescued from Jeddah as 18 crew members (one of whom was working his passage), one second engineer, one supercargo, and 992 passengers (778 men, 147 women, and 67 children, not counting infants in arms).

It also found the actions of Captain Clark in swinging out Jeddah′s lifeboats prematurely and subsequently launching the boats – dismaying the passengers – unprofessional and that he showed a "want of judgement and tact".

It also found him "guilty of gross misconduct in being indirectly the cause of the deaths of the second mate and ten natives, seven crew and three passengers, and in abandoning his disabled ship with nearly 1,000 souls on board to their fate".