The Orient Line's turbine steamer Orford was built for them by Vickers of Barrow in 1927. Registered at 19,941 gross tons, she measured 658 feet in length with a 75 foot beam, and had a cruising speed of 20 knots. Launched in September 1927 and completed exactly a year later, she cleared Tilbury for Brisbane on her maiden voyage on 13 October 1928, thereby commencing a regular pattern of Australia sailings interspersed with cruising which lasted until 1939. Requisitioned as a troop transport just before War was declared, she formed part of the large convoy carrying the first Australian contingents to the Middle East, disembarking her troops there in February 1940. From Suez she received orders to sail for Toulon in company with her sister Otranto where, during the campaign which resulted in the fall of France, she was bombed whilst anchored off Marseilles on 1 June and so badly damaged by fire that she was beached and declared a total loss.