SS Parthia

SS Parthia (1870–1956) was an iron-hulled transatlantic ocean liner built for the Cunard Line by William Denny and Brothers in Dumbarton, Scotland. Her sister ships were the SS Abyssinia and Algeria. Unlike her two sisters, Parthia was smaller, built in a different shipyard and had a slightly different funnel arrangement. The Parthia was retired by Cunard in 1883 and sold to John Elder & Co., who subsequently transferred her to the Guion Line. After serving with the Guion Line and operating on trans-Pacific routes with the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, she was refitted and renamed Victoria.

Under her new owners, the Northern Pacific Steamship Company, Victoria began operating out of Puget Sound in Washington state. In 1898, she was resold to the North American Mail Steamship Company and transferred to American registry. As a result of this, she was used as a troopship in the Philippine–American War, carrying troops to Manila in the Philippines. In 1900, she served with various owners along a route from Puget Sound to Nome, Alaska until she ended up with the Alaska Steamship Company in 1908. Victoria was then operated between San Francisco, California, and Nome, Alaska, via Seattle, Washington. In 1924, the Victoria, now 54 years old, underwent a refit, which added oil-fired boilers, larger superstructure and an enclosed bridge to her superstructure. A 1933 brochure by The Alaska Steamship Company gives the following information. Length: 370 ft. Breadth: 40 ft. Displacement: 6,670 tons. Gross: 3,868 GRT.

In 1934, Victoria inaugurated the first Alaskan cruise for her owners, calling to Nome and Kotzebue in Alaska. In 1935, Victoria was laid up in Seattle for three years and was converted to cargo only in 1940. From 1941 to 1947, the U.S. War Administration used her on 46 voyages to Alaska.

In 1952, she was sold for scrap to Dulien Steel Products, a firm on Lake Washington. Instead, she was converted into a barge and used by the Straits Towing and Salvage Company as the Straits No. 27 until 1956. Later that year she was renamed Straits Maru and scrapped in Osaka.