 The ship was named after William Francis Cowper, Baron Mount Temple, a British politician, Lord of the Admiralty and at the time, also a chairman of Armstrong Whitworth & Company.After delivery to her owners on 19 September, "Mount Temple" was chartered by the Imperial Government to transport remounts for the British Army fighting in South Africa during the Anglo-Boer War.She departed for her maiden journey on the same day for New Orleans and arrived there on 9 October.