RMS Carare was built by Cammel Laird at their Birkenhead yard in 1925 for the Elders and Fyffes shipping line. She was a refrigerated ‘banana boat’ of 6,878 tonnes gross and sailed between Avonmouth, England, Kingston, Jamaica and Santa Marta in Columbia. She carried up to 60 1st class passengers and like other ships of the Elders & Fyffes fleet she was named after a river in South America.