On 13th May 1921 Kaiserin Auguste Victoria was purchased outright by Canadian Pacific and renamed Empress of Scotland. Her interiors were refitted at Liverpool for the Canadian trade, with accommodation for 459 in First Class, 478 in Second Class and 960 in Third Class. Empress of Scotland then sailed on 21st August 1921 to Vulcan’s yard at Hamburg where she was converted to oil burning, and the engines overhauled. Additional lifeboats were installed, and she was repainted, with a black hull, a white forecastle, white riband and green boot topping. After her refit, Empress of Scotland sailed on 22nd January 1922, from Southampton to New York, followed by two Mediterranean cruises.
Constructed at the Vulcan shipyard at Stettin as Yard Number 264, Kaiserin Auguste Victoria was built to a design from Harland and Wolff in Belfast. She was launched on 29th August 1905: 677.5 feet long, 77.3 feet beam and 50.2 feet draft, and 25,037 registered tonnage. The maiden voyage between Hamburg and New York was on 10th May 1906. Docked in Hamburg at the outbreak of the Great War, Kaiserin Auguste Victoria was handed over to the Allies in early 1919. She was ceded to the Shipping Controller on 27th March 1919, then chartered by the US Shipping Board: on 8th April she made the first of five round voyages, repatriating American troops. The Reparations Commission then determined she should pass to Great Britain, and she was initially placed under Cunard’s management from February 1920 until early 1921, running between Liverpool and New York, before being put up for sale.