The ship was launched in 1920 as Tyrrhenia by William Beardmore and Company of

Glasgow on the River Clyde for Anchor Line, a subsidiary of Cunard. She was the
sister ship of RMS Cameronia that Beardmore's had built for the same customer the
previous year.[4] Tyrrhenia was 16,243 gross register tons, 578-foot (176 m) long
and could carry 2,200 passengers in three classes. She made her maiden voyage,
GlasgowQuebec CityMontreal, on 19 June 1922.[5]

In 1924 she was refitted for two classes and renamed Lancastria, after passengers
complained that they could not properly pronounce Tyrrhenia. She sailed scheduled
routes between Liverpool and New York until 1932, and was then used as a cruise
ship in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe.[6] On 10 October 1932 Lancastria
rescued the crew of the Belgian cargo ship Scheldestad, which had been abandoned
in a sinking condition in the Bay of Biscay.[7] In 1934 the Catholic Boy Scouts of
Ireland chartered Lancastria for a pilgrimage to Rome.[6] With the outbreak of the
Second World War she carried cargo, and was then requisitioned in April 1940 as a
troopship, becoming HMT Lancastria. She was first used to assist in the evacuation
of troops from Norway.