She was built in 1921 by Scotts Ship Building & Engineering Co. at Greenock with a tonnage of 7669grt, a length of 459ft 1in, a beam of  56ft 2in and a service speed of 14 knots. Sister of the Phemius she was built for the China Mutual Steam Navigation Co. On 5th June 1942 a convoy of six ships, code name Operation Harpoon, sailed from the Clyde with vital supplies for Malta. At the same time Operation Vigorous, a convoy made up of 11 ships sailed from Alexandria. The convoy of six ships which included Troilus passed Gibraltar during the night of 11th-12th June and from then on the escort was made up of one battleship, two aircraft carriers, two cruiser and eight destroyers. As the convoy got closer to Malta another cruiser, nine destroyers, four fleet minesweepers and six minesweeping launches joined the escorting ships. Apart from the Troilus the other ships in the convoy were the Burdwan and Orari from Britain, the Tanimbar from Holland and the Chant and Kentucky from the USA carrying in total 43,000 tons of cargo and oil. Air attacks increased in frequency and the Tanimbar was sunk on 14th June followed by the Chant during the following day. The Kentucky, after being hit, was taken in tow and the Burdwan was disabled. Rather than slow down both the Kentucky and the Burdwan were sunk. Of the remaining ships the Orari struck a mine and managed to limp into port while the Troilus arrived as the only unscathed ship. Of the eleven ships that sailed from Alexandria only six arrived safely in Malta after Admiral Vian's group was recalled to base. However, two years later she became the company's last war casualty when, on 31st August 1944 during a voyage from Colombo to Liverpool she was torpedoed and sunk by U-859 (KapitanLeutnant Johann Jebsen) 250 miles east of Socotra in the Indian Ocean (14 10N 61 04E) .As the boats were being lowered further torpedoes were fired causing more casualties, a total of twenty four in all. After five days afloat ninety five survivors were recovered from the lifeboats by HMS Taff and HMS Nadder who then took them to Aden.