In the early years of the twentieth century, the Hain Steam Ship Company of St. Ives operated one of Britain's largest fleets of general cargo steamers. Trevarrack was, in fact, their last vessel to be ordered before the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914 and, when completed, the twenty-seventh ship added to the company's fleet since 1900. All Hain ships carried names prefixed by "Tre" and, since names were often used again and again, the Trevarrack of 1914 was named to replace her predecessor of 1895. Like all the existing Hain tonnage, the new Trevarrack was built by John Readhead & Sons at South Shields and was registered upon completion at 4,199 tons gross. Measuring 370 feet in length with a 50 foot beam, her design and dimensions were similar to the most recent batch of vessels which Readhead had delivered to the company and she was powered by triple-expansion engines also manufactured by her builders.

Like so many other ships of the period, Trevarrack's service life was cut short by the War and she became the fourth of Hain's sixteen war losses when she was sunk on 16th November 1916. Surprised and captured by the German submarine UC-18, she was then sunk by gunfire west of Les Hanois (Guernsey) whilst en route from Buenos Aires to Hull carrying a full cargo of maize.