Mesaba was launched for the Atlantic Transport Line at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland on 11 September 1897, and completed on 17 February 1898.

She was assessed at 6,833 gross register tons (GRT) and had a triple expansion engine producing 772 nhp, driving a single screw propeller.

[3] Winefreda originally sailed from London to New York City from her maiden voyage on 3 March 1898 until June 1898, when she was renamed to Mesaba and continued to operate on that line.

On the night the Titanic struck an iceberg and began to sink on 14 April 1912, she had received a series of warnings from other ships of drifting ice in the area of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.

[7] Before that, the wreck was believed to be that of SS City of Glasgow, a passenger ship that was sunk on the same day and by the same U-boat while travelling in the same convoy as Mesaba close to her position.