[4] Tuscania carried passengers between New York City and Glasgow while in service with the Anchor Line, on a route that had previously been assigned to her sister ship Transylvania.

She continued to run this route even as World War I broke out in Europe in August 1914 and Germany initiated a submarine campaign against merchant shipping in waters near the United Kingdom.

Tuscania made international headlines for rescuing passengers and crew from the burning Greek steamer SS Athinai on 20 September 1915.

Under the cover of darkness around 6:40 pm, the submarine's commanding officer, Korvettenkapitän Wilhelm Meyer, ordered two torpedoes fired at Tuscania.

The police sergeant at Bowmore, Malcolm McNeill, the maternal grandfather of NATO general secretary (1999 - 2004) George Robertson, had said of local people in his official report: 'though they had so little, they gave so much to help those who were wrecked on their shores' and he wrote back to all those raising enquiries from America on family members lost on Tuscania (and in the 1918 HMS Otranto sinking).