The ship was launched on December 1, 1906 and was christened Viking in the traditional manner by the Crown Princess, later Queen Alexandrine, of Denmark.

In July 1909, Captain Niels Clausen logged the ship's top speed of 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph) at the Roaring Forties, i.e. latitude 40°-50°, with daily distances of 250-275 nautical miles.

[citation needed] She was then on her way home fully loaded with wheat from Port Pirie on Spencer Gulf in South Australia.

This was something of a lucky escape, because within weeks Germany would return to unrestricted marine warfare, a policy that would have meant the ship's definite sinking.

After several circumnavigations, Viking unloaded her cargo of wheat in Cardiff in the summer of 1939 and then sailed to her home port of Mariehamn, which she entered on July 14.

Viking was towed, along with Passat and Pommern, to Stockholm in July 1944 to be used as a grain silo for the Swedish State Food Commission.

[5] David Robb Muirhead (1921–78) wrote a diary and took photos of his voyage on the Viking as a working passenger in 1948, which records are held in the State Library of South Australia.

A few more are still afloat and berthed in various harbors (Peking (Hamburg), Moshulu (Philadelphia), Passat (Lübeck, Germany), Pommern (Mariehamn, Finland), Nippon Maru (Yokohama, Japan), and Viking).