She was named after the Comte de Rochambeau, a French aristocrat and marshal who led an army in the American Revolutionary War.

A turbine is smaller, simpler, lighter, faster, smoother and more reliable than an equivalent triple- or quadruple-expansion piston engine.

[4] The comparison influenced Harland and Wolff to apply the same triple screw, reciprocating and turbine combination in the White Star Olympic class liners.

[7] Unlike Otaki, Laurentic and the Olympic-class ocean liners, Rochambeau had four screws: two driven by four-cylinder triple-expansion engines and two by low-pressure turbines.

On CGT's advice, Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson adopted the same arrangement when it built the liner Reina Victoria-Eugenia for Compañía Transatlántica Española in 1912–13.

[11] After the outbreak of the First World War the US Ambassador in Paris, Myron T. Herrick, chartered Rochambeau and another CGT liner, Espagne, to repatriate US citizens from Europe.

[14] CGT kept Rochambeau on the same route until March 1915, despite the extra pressure on Le Havre as a port supplying the British Expeditionary Force and the danger from German Navy U-boats operating in the English Channel.

[15] In the war the Entente Allies defensively armed their merchant ships, generally with a single naval gun on the stern.

The USA was neutral until April 1917, but from September 1914 its Department of State allowed an armed merchant ship of a belligerent country to use US ports on condition that she was armed with no more than two guns, they were not more than 6-inch (150 mm) calibre,[16] no guns were mounted on the forward part of the ship, her cargo excluded war materiél, and her passengers as a whole were not suitable for military service.

[18] In February 1916, 11 people in Bordeaux were convicted of either stealing valuables from CGT passengers' luggage or handling the stolen goods.

[20] On 29 April 1917 Rochambeau's gunners opened fire on a "suspicious object" astern, and then off her starboard beam at a range of about 800 yards.

[23] Lafayette's westbound crossing in January 1919 was marred by engine trouble three days out of Bordeaux, which reduced her speed to 9 knots (17 km/h).

[26] On the morning of 21 February 1925 Rochambeau collided with the Anchor Line liner Tuscania in New York Harbour, damaging both ships above the waterline.

[15] In June 1931 the United Press Association reported that Rochambeau collided with a vessel called Uncheria off Ushant.

[29] Numerous newspapers published the story, but the Waikato Times noted that there was no vessel called Uncheria in Lloyd's Register.