The SS Lake Champlain was built by Barclay, Curle & Co., Ltd, Glasgow in 1900 for Elder Dempster's Beaver Line. She was a 7,392 gross ton ship, length 446 feet x beam 52 feet, one funnel, four masts, twin screw and a speed of 13 knots. Accommodation was provided for 100-1st, 80-2nd and 500-3rd class passengers.
Launched on 31 March 1900, she sailed on 15 May 1900 from Liverpool on her maiden voyage to Quebec and Montreal. On 21 May 1901, she was the first merchant ship to be fitted with permanent wireless telegraphy apparatus and on 6 April 1903 was taken over with the rest of Beaver Line's fleet by Canadian Pacific.
In 1906 her accommodation was modified to carry 150-2nd and 1,000-3rd class passengers and on 7 March 1913 she was renamed Ruthenia. She commenced sailings between Trieste and St. John, New Brunswick on 20 March 1913 and completed 5½ round voyages on this service, the last starting in January 1914. On 4 February 1914 she left St. John, New Brunswick for London and in September 1914 commenced her last London - Quebec - Montreal voyage.
She arrived at Belfast in November 1914 and was converted into a dummy of the battleship HMS King George V. In summer 1915 she became a store ship and in 1916 was used as a naval oiler. In 1929 she became an oil hulk at Singapore and in 1942 was captured by the Japanese and renamed Choran Maru. Recaptured by Allied forces in 1945, she stranded in the Moesi River, Sumatra, Indonesia in 1946, was refloated and towed to the Clyde. Arriving there on 18 June 1949, she was broken up at Dalmuir.
Sources: North Atlantic seaway by N.R.P.Bonsor, Vol.3,p.1308, Canadian Pacific, 100 years by George Musk.