Eventually converted into an early example of a refrigeration ship, Port Victor continued in Australian service until shortly before her sale in 1898 to the United States government for use as a transport during the Spanish–American War.

After the war, she was renamed USAT McClellan and employed as a U.S. Army transport for more than twenty years, supplying the garrisons in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines.

For the next dozen years, she would operate from her homeport of London to a host of Australian ports, including those of Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart and Darwin, as well as other Pacific and Far Eastern destinations such as New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and Batavia.

[8] Shortly before the resolution of this court case, in July 1887, Port Victor again became the source of "considerable excitement" when one of the ship's passengers arriving in Sydney from Hong Kong turned out to have smallpox.

Sheep pens, hen coops, dog kennels and livestock on the ship's deck were swept overboard, and the passenger quarters, including the saloons and cabins, were flooded.

[11] A little over a year later, on 8 July 1889, the ship suffered a second accident when she ran aground on a reef off Restoration Island, northwest of Brisbane, on a coal-carrying voyage from Newcastle, NSW to Batavia.

[15] Port Victor was back in Melbourne by May 1890, with a cargo of ammunition and railway rolling stock for the government, in addition to four draught horses presumably brought out for breeding purposes.

[28][29] Port Victor was thereafter quickly put into operation, transporting Red Cross ambulances and mules to Cuba; unfortunately, the shipment came too late to assist the wounded after the battles for Santiago.

[33] From the end of the Spanish–American War in August 1898 through to May 1901, McClellan and several other Army transports were engaged in the supply and rotation of U.S. occupation troops in the newly conquered territories of Cuba and Puerto Rico.

McClellan maintained a regular monthly service to the islands at a cost of about $13,000 per voyage, transferring troops, government officials, civilians and supplies to and from the outposts.

[34][35][36] In August 1899, McClellan became the subject of a test case after a dispute at Gibara, Cuba, between two of the ship's officers, the quartermaster and the sailing master, the latter of whom resigned after having his advice to put to sea before the onset of a hurricane overruled by the former.

The sailing master was later dismissed from government service over the episode, thus settling the "vexed question" of which officer exercised ultimate authority on an Army transport.

[39][40][41] By the end of the month, McClellan was back in New York to take part in the grand naval parade on 29 September, arranged in celebration of Admiral George Dewey's return to the United States following his victory over Spanish forces in the Philippines the previous year.

The parade, then the biggest in the city's history, was more than seven miles long and consisted of hundreds of ships and boats of all types, including both naval and private vessels.

McClellan and the other transports formerly engaged in this service were instead switched to supplying the U.S. garrison established in the new American protectorate of the Philippines, seized from the Spanish during the recent Spanish–American War.

Her precise duties during this period are not recorded but she is known to have made voyages to Far Eastern destinations, in one instance being slated to return to his post the Governor of the Philippines, William Howard Taft, from a mission to China.

McClellan would finally return to the United States after a two-year absence in April 1908, carrying a number of officers and their families including General Leonard Wood.

In 1909, she participated in the withdrawal of occupation troops and officials from Cuba following the termination of Charles E. Magoon's governorship and the restoration of the island's independence under José Miguel Gómez.

McClellan was chosen by the Quartermaster Corps for conversion to refrigerated cargo capability when directed to choose one of its ships to supply frozen beef and other products to Army forces stationed in the Gulf of Mexico.

The ice machine was beyond repair and when insulation was removed from the old refrigerated room the deck plating underneath was found to be rusted out, requiring complete replacement.

[33] USAT McClellan was sold by the Army to Belgian company Lloyd Royal Belge SA,[59] in December 1919,[33] and re-entered commercial service for a short time as SS Hastier.