The Booth Line's steamer Ambrose (II) on her maiden voyage, 1903

Laid down by Sir Raylton Dixon & Co. in their Middlesbrough yards in 1902, Ambrose (II) was ordered by the Booth Line for its South Atlantic and Amazon River service in conjunction with the new docking facilities at Manaus scheduled for completion in May 1903. Registered at 4,588 tons gross (2,490 net), she measured 375 feet in length with a 48 foot beam and her Newcastle-built engines gave her a cruising speed of 12 knots. Costing £89,000, she had accommodation for 149 First and 333 Third class passengers and, after launching on 31st March 1903, she left Liverpool on her maiden voyage up the Amazon on 7th October the same year. A popular steamer from the outset and the largest vessel in the company's fleet at the time of her completion, she ran on her scheduled route for eleven years before being requisitioned for war service in December 1914 to become the armed merchant cruiser H.M.S. Ambrose. Attached to the 10th Cruiser Squadron, she narrowly escaped being sunk by a German submarine in March 1915 whilst en route to Liverpool for conversion into a submarine depot ship and, once the War ended, she retained this role and never returned to the Booth Line. Converted into a destroyer depot ship in 1938 and renamed H.M.S. Cochrane, she was finally scrapped in 1946.