In 1912 and 1913 Irvine's Shipbuilding & Dry Docks Co Ltd built a pair of sister ships, with consecutive yard numbers, at its shipyard on the River Tees in West Hartlepool, County Durham, England, for the Nederlandsch-Amerikaansche Stoomvaart Maatschappij (NASM), known in English as "Holland America Line".

[1] She had a single screw, driven by a four-cylinder quadruple-expansion steam engine built by Richardsons Westgarth & Company of Hartlepool.

[6] On 20 March 1918 President Woodrow Wilson issued Proclamation 1436, authorising the seizure under angary of Dutch ships in US ports.

[7] Oosterdijk received minor repairs at Baltimore, bunkered at Norfolk, and on 2 July left New York in her second convoy to France.

On 10 July Oosterdijk collided with the passenger-cargo ship San Jacinto in the North Atlantic at position 39°55′N 47°55′W / 39.917°N 47.917°W / 39.917; -47.917, southeast of Newfoundland.