[1][2] Moresby was built as Jacob Christensen in 1881 at the Raylton Dixon & Co. shipyard in Middlesbrough, United Kingdom and launched on 23 November that same year before being completed in 1882.

Several attempts to free her were unsuccessful and by the next morning, the ship's commander Captain Voy ordered all passengers into the lifeboats to be safely brought to Lizard Island.

Captain Voy managed to refloat the ship on the morning of 21 February 1910 and proceeded to pick up the stranded passengers on Lizard Island before continuing its journey.

Due to the threat posed at sea by German U-boats in the ongoing First World War, Moresby had been defensively armed by her owners.

[5] When on 28 November 1916, while the ship was sailing in the Mediterranean Sea, 120 nautical miles (220 km) northwest of Alexandria, Egypt, she was torpedoed without warning by SM U-39.