Suevic was the fifth and last of the Jubilee-class ocean liners, built specifically to service the Liverpool-Cape Town-Sydney route, along with her sister ship Runic.

Runic and Suevic had several minor design changes, the most noticeable of which were the lengthening of the poop deck, and the moving of the bridge closer to the bow.

On 2 February 1907 she left Melbourne under the command of Captain Thomas Johnson Jones with scheduled stops at Cape Town, Tenerife, Plymouth, London and finally Liverpool.

The captain ordered the distress rockets to be fired, and a local rescue effort ensued, with all the passengers and crew escaping to shore safely.

RNLI lifeboats, manned by local volunteers from stations at the Lizard, Cadgwith, Coverack and Porthleven, rescued all the passengers, including 70 babies, as well as the crew.

[9] By coincidence, later the same night, another smaller liner SS Jebba of the Elder Dempster Line also ran aground along the same coastline, almost within sight of Suevic, with its crew and passengers also requiring rescue.

[7] With the bow now irretrievably stuck, and the threat of even worse weather coming which could completely destroy the ship, many experienced salvage men believed that the only course of action was to abandon Suevic to her fate.

White Star decided this was a worthwhile risk as, if successful, rebuilding the ship would be a cheaper option than building a replacement vessel.

The work to place the explosive charges was hazardous, and took several days, as it could only be undertaken by divers at high or low tide when there was little tidal movement.

The exposed watertight bulkhead remained secure, and Suevic was able to steam under her own power, in reverse and guided by tugs, to Southampton.

White Star then ordered a new 212-foot (65 m) bow section from Harland and Wolff in Belfast, which was slightly longer than the original to allow proper grafting.

Men from the shipbuilders, J. I. Thornycroft, in Southampton were also employed to assist the Harland and Wolff workforce in getting Suevic rebuilt as quickly as possible, the bow was then attached to the stern section.

[5] Three months later, after the largest ship-rebuilding effort ever undertaken at the time, on 14 January 1908, the work on Suevic was completed and the vessel returned to service.

[2][1][3] Whilst the rebuilding was underway, Suevic's master, Captain Jones, was found liable for her wrecking at the Court of Enquiry, and had his Certificate of Competency suspended for three months, although the trip had been his last before his retirement.

Suevic did make one dedicated war run, in March 1915, carrying British troops to Moudros, as a part of the Dardanelles Campaign.

From that point, until 1919, Suevic operated under the Royal Navy's Liner Requisition Scheme rather than under White Star management, although she continued on her commercial route to Australia.

[7][1][2] When Germany invaded Norway in the Second World War, Skytteren was interned in the neutral port of Gothenburg, Sweden, with several other Norwegian ships in April 1940.

[1] On 1 April 1942, ten Norwegian ships at Gothenburg made an attempt to escape into Allied-controlled waters, where they would be met and protected by a group of British warships.

For several years after 2005, oil was observed to be leaking to the surface from the decaying wreck, leading to concerns about the potential environmental threat.