She carried passengers, cargo and mail between Rotterdam and the Dutch East Indies until March 1918, when the United States seized her under angary and she became USS Ophir (ID-2800).

Between 1903 and 1906 Koninklijke Maatschappij 'De Schelde' in Vlissingen built three sister ships for Rotterdamsche Lloyd.

[5][6] Ophir's peacetime route between Rotterdam and the Dutch East Indies was via the Strait of Gibraltar and Suez Canal.

In the First World War the Netherlands were neutral, but Rotterdamsche Lloyd re-routed Ophir via the Cape of Good Hope to avoid hostilities in the Mediterranean.

[7] On 20 March 1918 President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation seizing all Dutch merchant ships in ports of the USA and its territories.

[10] On 25 October, Ophir started a fourth transatlantic voyage from the East Coast of the United States.

[8] But fire was discovered aboard, thought to be in the lower part of her number two hold, in which she was carrying about 500 tons of coal.

[10] Ophir's crew fought the fire with her own firefighting equipment until the evening of 11 November, when an explosion blew the hatches off number two hold[10] and killed two of her enginemen.

Lieut Cmdr Nash asked permission from the Royal Navy Senior Naval Officer (SNO) for the ship to be beached.

[10] On 16 November 1918 the two dead crewmen were buried in North Front Cemetery, but in June 1919 their bodies were repatriated to the USA.

[9] On 22 May 1919 the five Jeffrey Quad trucks, which had spent weeks under 16 feet (5 m) of water, were sold to a buyer in Cadiz.

About 100 nautical miles (190 km) off Cape Henry they encountered a storm, which broke the tow rope.