Themis was a steam cargo ship built in 1911 by the William Doxford & Sons of Pallion for the Wabanas Dampskibskompani, a subsidiary of Nova Scotia Steel & Coal Company and managed by Wilhelm Wilhelmsen.

[1] On March 21, 1910 Themis was chartered to Nova Scotia Steel & Coal Company for a period of 9 consecutive navigation seasons (April through December) for a fee of £2,031.5 per calendar month starting in 1911.

On March 24, 1910 Themis was also chartered to Gans Steamship Company for nine consecutive winter seasons for a fee £1,562.10 per calendar month, starting in 1911 as well.

For example, in August 1911 she managed to make three trips from Wabana, bringing a total of 37,560 tons of iron ore to Port Richmond.

[12] In a similar fashion the ship brought and unloaded 10,900 tons of Cuban ore at Sparrow's Point on April 12, 1912.

[13] On April 25, 1912 the ship sailed for Wabana to resume her summertime ore carrying to Philadelphia which continued until the end of navigation season in early November.

Nevertheless, Themis pressed on with her journey and arrived in Antwerp on December 20 with a leaking forpeak and some damage about her deck caused by storms she encountered during her trip.

[16] After unloading, the ship then proceeded back to Wabana via Newcastle to resume ore transportation to Philadelphia until October 1913.

After the start of World War I Themis could no longer be involved in her transatlantic ore trade, as the main consumer of her cargo was Germany.

[8] The vessel was handed over to Barber Line on April 28, 1915, and departed shortly thereafter for South America, visiting ports of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, returning to Boston on August 12, 1915.

The vessel arrived at Montevideo on April 3, continued on to Buenos Aires two days later where she loaded among other things 8,341 bags of dried blood for New York.

On November 21, 1916 Themis on a passage from Iloilo for New York City grounded on the outer end of the West Breakwater in Bahía Limon right after leaving the Panama Canal for sea.

She was then pulled off and towed stern first into port of Cristóbal to discharge the remaining cargo, before being put into drydock at Balboa for repairs on December 10.

At around 07:30 on October 12, 1917 in an approximate position 37°23′N 11°05′E / 37.383°N 11.083°E / 37.383; 11.083, about 20 nautical miles (37 km) north off Cape Bon the ship was suddenly hit by a torpedo on her starboard side, around the No.3 hold.