the upper deck, and fitting four BL naval guns and magazines, two on the forecastle, two on the poop deck. On 17 August, the ship was commissioned as the auxiliary cruiser HMAS Berrima, under the command of Commander J.B. Stevenson. The ship's civilian officer complement were inducted into the Royal Australian Naval Reserve, and the crew was supplemented by Royal Navy and RAN sailors. Berrima left Sydney on 19 August 1914 carrying men of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force, consisting of a battalion of 1,000 infantry and a small battalion of 500 RAN Reservists and time-expired Royal Navy personnel, for operations against the German New Guinea colonies. Berrima met the naval units of the expeditionary force off Rossel Island on 9 September. Troops were landed at Herbertshöhe and Rabaul on 11 and 12 September respectively, and on the New Guinea mainland near Madang on 24 September. The ship was retroactively awarded the battle honour "Rabaul 1914" in March 2010 to recognise these landings. Berrima subsequently returned to Sydney and, despite plans to employ her as an armed merchant cruiser, was paid off on 20 October 1914. She was converted to a troop transport in November 1914. In her new role, His Majesty's Australian Troop Transport (HMATT) Berrima sailed for the Middle East in December 1914 as part of the second troop convoy, carrying Australian and New Zealand troops and towing the submarine AE2. Berrima continued to work under the liner requisition scheme until 18 February 1917, when she was torpedoed in the English Channel off Portland with the loss of four lives. After the rest of the crew were evacuated by the destroyer , then towed into Portland Harbour, beached (due to the lack of drydock facilities), and repaired. The Commonwealth relinquished control on 10 October 1917. After being repaired she was requisitioned by the Shipping Controller for use as the Atlantic stores and munitions ferry service. Post-war career and fate On 1 February 1920, while homeward bound, Berrima was stranded off Margate due to an error by the harbour pilot. She was refloated the next evening. Berrima was returned to commercial service on 24 March 1920, and was subsequently employed on the P&O Branch Line. On 26 April 1929, Berrima departed on her final voyage to Australia, after which P&O shut down the UK to Australia via Cape Town route. On 16 July 1930, she was sold