Mount Temple was a passenger cargo steamship built in 1901 by Armstrong Whitworth & Company of Newcastle for Elder, Dempster & Co Ltd of Liverpool to operate as part of its Beaver Line.

In 1916, while crossing the Atlantic with horses for the war effort and carrying a large number of newly collected dinosaur fossils (two of which were the hadrosaurs Corythosaurus), she was captured and scuttled complete with her cargo.

[5] After successful completion of sea trials on 19 September 1901, in which the ship maintained an average speed of 11+1⁄2 knots (21.3 km/h; 13.2 mph) over several runs on the measured mile on the Tyne in very unfavorable weather, she was transferred to her owners and immediately departed for New Orleans.

[6] The vessel was constructed for general cargo trade, and had an iron shelter deck built over the whole length of the ship, good for about 1,100 heads of cattle.

[7] The ship was named after William Francis Cowper, Baron Mount Temple, a British politician, Lord of the Admiralty and at the time, also a chairman of Armstrong Whitworth & Company.

After delivery to her owners on 19 September, Mount Temple was chartered by the Imperial Government to transport remounts for the British Army fighting in South Africa in the Second Boer War.

[19][20] After completing all the transfer requirement, Mount Temple was refitted to carry large number of passengers, and the Marconi Company equipped her for wireless telegraphy.

Mount Temple departed Liverpool for her first voyage under new ownership on 12 May 1903 carrying 12 cabin and 1,200 steerage passengers for Quebec City and about 1,000 tons of general cargo for Montreal.

[24] The steamer conducted five more runs between Liverpool and Montreal until the end of navigation season on the St. Lawrence River in November 1903, carrying general cargo and immigrants from Europe to Canada, and returning with cattle, foodstuffs and lumber.

[25] Mount Temple left Antwerp on 20 November 1907 on her usual route to Saint John, carrying around 6,000 tons of general cargo and 633 passengers.

At around midnight, the captain retired leaving the watch to the second officer, Griffith Owen Lewis, with an order to call him if the weather worsened.

As the sea subsided, the lifeboats were employed to speed up the evacuation, and the help arrived in the form of several fishing vessels, schooners Hazel and Guide, and the tug Trusty.

[26] The rest of the passengers had to spend a night on the island, and were safely brought to Halifax the next day by the Canadian government steamer Lady Laurier.

[27] Mount Temple had to spend the winter stranded, but was not damaged by the storms, and three attempts were made to float the steamer in February 1908, yet all of them proved to be unsuccessful.

On 14 October 1911 while entering Gravesend Mount Temple collided with an Australian steamer SS Osterley anchored at Tilbury Dock, causing some slight damage to her bow.

Durrant had the message relayed to the bridge by a steward, and acknowledged receipt of the signal to Titanic's wireless operator, Jack Phillips.

Moore worked out his own rough position as 41°25′N 51°14′W / 41.417°N 51.233°W / 41.417; -51.233, about 61 nautical miles (113 km; 70 mi) south and west from the now-established location of the wreck of the Titanic (41°43.5′N 49°56.8′W / 41.7250°N 49.9467°W / 41.7250; -49.9467).

He had ropes and ladders readied, lifebelts prepared and posted extra lookouts to aid avoiding the icebergs reported in the area.

Around this time, Mount Temple encountered what was thought to be a schooner with just a single green light, which went unidentified and caused the ship to take evasive action.

[40] At 08:31 Carpathia reported picking up 20 boats, and sent another message at 09:26 telling everyone there was no more need to stand by, following which, Moore gave the order to reverse course and continue the voyage to New Brunswick.

[41] As soon as Mount Temple reached Canada, she became the center of controversy as two passengers, and allegedly some crew members, stated that the ship was close to Titanic but failed to come to her rescue as they saw her distress rockets and even watched her sinking.

[42][43] These speculations were ignored by both the American and British inquiries, and none of Mount Temple's officers either testified or submitted affidavits in support of these claims.

The controversy surrounding Mount Temple was further stirred up in November 2020 by the PBS program Abandoning the Titanic, part of the Secrets of the Dead series.

The show concluded that Californian's captain, Stanley Lord, was wrongly pilloried for failing to reach Titanic, when it was actually Mount Temple's Master who abandoned the doomed liner's passengers and crew to their fate.

'[46] Although the new show attempts to discredit Captain Moore of Mount Temple and lays blame for "abandoning" Titanic and those aboard her to their fate, the historical record clearly proves otherwise.

The vessel proceeded as far as the new drydock before changing her course too far south and subsequently ran aground opposite off Maisonneuve at 05:35 on the mud banks of Longueuil.

[53][54] After the release, Mount Temple transported about 1,200 German prisoners of war (POWs) captured during the Battle of Loos from France to England before proceeding to Montreal, where she arrived on 28 October 1915.