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Adriatic was the largest and fastest of the White Star Line’s Big Four. The only ship larger at that time, the 24,581-ton Kaiserin Auguste Victoria, entered service for he Hamburg Amerika Line in May 1906. The earlier ships of the Big Four were, Celtic launched in 1901, Cedric 1903 and Baltic 1904. Although Adriatic had been ordered in 1903, a delay in construction meant her launch took place 3 years later on the same day as Cunard’s Mauretania. Adriatic set new standards in ocean travel, as she was the first ship to be fitted with an indoor swimming pool and Turkish bath. Her maiden voyage from Liverpool - New York began May 8th 1907. After Adriatic returned from New York, she was relocated to the White Star Line’s new terminal at Southampton. Adriatic then became the company’s first ship to provide a service between Southampton and New York.

The arrival of Cunard’s two 31,500-ton liners Lusitania and Mauretania in 1907 forced the White Star Line to design a new class of liner to compete. After the White Star Line’s 45,324-ton Olympic entered service on the Southampton - New York run in 1911, Adriatic was returned to the Liverpool - New York run. Throughout World War One, she served mainly as a troopship carrying thousands of tons of munitions without incident. The end of the war saw Adriatic undergo a refit before being returned to the Atlantic run in 1919. Following restrictions being put on the number of emigrants entering America in the 1920s, the White Star Line was forced to convert her to a cabin class ship in 1928. By that time there were new larger/faster liners operating on the Atlantic run. This led to the White Star Line operating Adriatic as a full time cruise ship from 1933 in an attempt to keep her in service. After the Cunard/White Star merger in 1934, the aging Adriatic was laid up at Liverpool for a few months before setting out for the ship breakers at Osaka/Japan.