She was built by John Brown & Company at Clydebank, Scotland in 1909 to operate a passenger service between London and Australia (via the Suez Canal).

By 1913 Orsova was equipped for wireless telegraphy, operating on the 300 and 600 metre wavelengths.

Witkiewicz travelled to Ceylon as an intended cure for his psyche after the suicide of his fiancée, Jadwiga Janczewska.

On 14 March 1917, she was damaged by a mine laid by German submarine UC-68 and beached in Cornwall, but was repaired in Devonport and resumed the passenger service on the UK to Australia route in 1919.

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