Until 1909 the Orient Line's largest and newest ship on the route was the , which was launched in 1902. In 1909 Orient Line upgraded its service with five new twin-screw sister ships, each of slightly more than , with twin screws driven by quadruple-expansion steam engines. and were launched in 1908 and , and Orvieto were launched in 1909. This was followed by the Federal Australian Government in 1910 renewing the contract for the Orient Line to carry mail between Australia and the UK.
