In April 1920 the Chilean Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores (CSAV) ordered a pair of passenger and cargo liners for service between Valparaíso and New York via the Panama Canal.

By the time Aconcagua and Teno entered service they faced strong competition from Grace Line, and CSAV reported losses in 1922 and 1923.

[2] The Wall Street crash of October 1929 started the Great Depression, which sharply reduced the export market for Chilean mining products and hence the country's ability to buy goods from overseas.

[10] Mohamed Ali El-Kebir was sunk in August 1940 on her first troop voyage, en route under Royal Navy escort from Avonmouth to Gibraltar.

Khedive Ismail was one of several troop ships that joined Convoy AG 14, which left Alexandria on 24 April and reached Greek waters two days later.

Luftwaffe aircraft attacked the convoy en route to Nauplia, damaging Slamat and wounding several people aboard Khedive Ismail.

Two days before they arrived, the troop ship Ulster Prince had run aground blocking access to Nauplia Port, and on 25 April an air raid had turned her into a total loss.

Khedive Ismail, Slamat and their Royal Navy escorts would now have to anchor in the bay, where boats would bring troops out to them from the shore.

From July 1941 until the beginning of February 1942 Khedive Ismail continually brought British Indian Army reinforcements from India to Basra in Iraq, making seven trips from Bombay[23][24][25][26][27][28][29] and two from Karachi.

[30][31] In January 1942 British and Empire forces had occupied Italian Eritrea, so in the second half of February 1942 Khedive Ismail took 850 troops from Bombay to Massawa.

[32] For the next two years she criss-crossed the Indian Ocean in troop movements between Aden, Mombasa,[33] Colombo,[33] Durban,[34] Bombay,[35] Karachi,[36] Tanga,[36] Suez,[36] Diego Suarez,[36] Majunga,[36] Berbera,[36] Port Elizabeth,[36] Cape Town,[36] Djibouti,[36] Tamatave[36] and Dar es Salaam.

[37] In September 1942 Khedive Ismail took part in Operation Streamline Jane, taking troops from Allied-occupied Diego Suarez in northern Madagascar to land at Vichy-held Majunga on the east coast of the island.

[36] On 5 February 1944 Khedive Ismail left Mombasa bound for Colombo carrying 1,348 passengers including 996 members of the East African Artillery's 301st Field Regiment, 271 Royal Navy personnel, 19 WRNS, 53 nursing sisters and their matron, nine members of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and a war correspondent, Kenneth Gandar-Dower.

As the convoy's merchant ships scattered for safety, Paladin lowered boats to rescue survivors and Petard released depth charges.

The destruction of a submarine that might sink more ships took precedence over the lives of survivors, so with Paladin out of action Petard resumed the attack with first depth charges, then 4-inch shellfire and finally 21-inch (530 mm) Mk IX torpedoes.