The 10,048 GRT steamship Ascanius and the two identical sister ships Aeneas (I) (10,049 GRT) and Anchises (III) (10,046 GRT) were the first passenger ships of the Blue Funnel Line. They were ordered from Workman, Clark & Company in Belfast in 1908 for the shipping company's Australian service and each displaced more than 10,000 gross registered tonnes (GRT). They were considered pioneers on the Australian route. According to the criteria of the Lloyd's Register of Shipping , the three steamers were class A.
The 150.3 meter long and 18.4 meter wide passenger and cargo ship had a chimney, two masts and two propellers and was powered by a triple expansion steam engine that developed 641 hp and allowed a speed of 14 knots. The three ships were each designed to carry 288 passengers in first class. The Ascanius was launched as the second of the three ships on October 29, 1910. On December 30, 1910, she left Glasgow on her maiden voyage via Liverpool and Cape Town to Adelaide , Melbourne , Sydney and Brisbane .
In August 1914, the steamer was converted into a troop transport for the Australian Expeditionary Force and was given the tactical identification A11. In 1917 the Ascanius came under the Liner Requisition Theme and on August 21, 1920 she was returned to her owners. She resumed her regular passenger service from Glasgow via Liverpool to Brisbane. In 1922 it was modernized and from 1926 it only carried 180 first class passengers. In 1940 she was requested again as a troop transport. On July 30, 1944, the Ascanius was torpedoed in the English Channel by U 621 (Oberleutnant zur See Hermann Stuckmann), but was able to reach Liverpool on its own and was repaired by Cammell, Laird & Company .
In 1945 the ship was used to transport displaced persons from Marseille to Haifa . In 1949 the Ascanius was sold to the Cia de Nav. Florencia in Genoa , registered in Panama and renamed San Giovannino . It was supposed to be used in the emigration traffic from Italy to Australia, but that did not happen. It was launched in La Spezia and finally scrapped in March 1952.
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