Before 1948, the ship, under the name of "Monte Rosa", had been used for cruises in pre-war Germany, and then as a German troopship and prisoner transport ship, before being captured by the British and taken as a war prize. She continued to be used as a British troopship after 1948, but sank in the Mediterranean Sea in March 1954 after a sudden and catastrophic fire in her engine room, just off the coast of Algeria.