SS Hilonian was a general passenger and cargo steamer, built as the Triumph in 1880 at Middlesbrough for McIntyre & Co, and later fitted with refrigeration equipment and leased to Shaw Savill and the New Zealand Shipping Company. She sank and ran aground many times, the final sinking being by torpedo in 1917. Triumph first went to China, where she ran ashore in the Yangtze. After being refloated she returned to England, where she was chartered for the New Zealand trade. On her first voyage south she carried 322 emigrants and steerage passengers from Plymouth to Auckland.