SS Ascanius was a steamship built in 1910 for the Ocean Steamship Company to be operated in the Blue Funnel Line. The ship operated from Britain to Australia until 1914 when she was converted into the troop transporter HMAT Ascanius for the Australian Expeditionary Force with the tactical identifier A11. Ascanius was returned to her owners after the war and resumed her regular passenger service from Glasgow via Liverpool to Brisbane.
In 1940 Ascanius was again requisitioned as a troop transporter. On 30 July 1944 she was torpedoed in the English Channel by German submarine U-621, but was able to reach Liverpool on her own and was repaired. In 1945, the ship was used to transport displaced persons from Marseille to Haifa. In 1949 Ascanius was sold to Cia. de Nav. 'Florencia' of Genoa and renamed San Giovannino. She was to be used for emigrant traffic from Italy to Australia, but this did not happen and she was scrapped in 1952.