On 6 August 1910 the steamer EL ORIENTE (yard number 132) was launched at the shipyard Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. in Newport News (USA). In October 1910 the ship was handed over to the owners, the Southern Pacific S.S. Lines Co. at New York. For the compulsion the ship had a triple expansion steam engine, which had been designed by the shipyard itself. The steamer reached a service speed of 14 knots. The 123.60 m long (loa), 16.20 m wide ship had a summer draft of 8.30 m. She had a capacity of 6008 GRT, 3747 NRT and 8500 DWT and was equipped with 9 derricks. After being commissioned she was used for the regular service between New York and Texas. Her callsign was WICQ. By the end of World War I the US Marine requisitioned the steamer for the transport of troops and livestock to France but in 1919 gave her back to the owners.
On 14 December 1928 the EL ORIENTE run aground near Liberty Island in the port of New York, but later on she could be floated again and repaired. In May 1936 she run aground again on the northern side of the Cape Cod channel (Massachusetts) and was towed free later on.
In September 1941 the US Maritime Commission bought the EL ORIENTE and registered her in Panama. She received then the callsign HPXC.
On 13 September 1944 the foundation for the organisation of transport for the Red Cross in Basle bought the steamer for 350,000 US $ and entered her into the Swiss ships register. On the proposal of the American Red Cross the new owners named her after the founder of the Red Cross, the Swiss HENRY DUNANT. With this new registration the ship received the call sign HBDR. According to the so-called réméré agreement (sale under the condition that the seller may buy the ship back within a certain period of time) the purchase price was to be paid only six months after the end of the war.
The HENRY DUNANT undertook six voyages for the Red Cross and transported whereby 20,750 tons of goods for prisoners of war in Europe. On 26 January 1945 she left the port of Lisbon towards Delfzijl transporting 5000 tons of food and drugs, which the Swiss people had given for the starving Dutch population. But for this voyage the allied and the German forces required the ship to navigate firstly towards West till 22 degrees of longitude. Than she had to head in the direction of Iceland via the Faeroe Islands, Bergen (Norway), Göteborg, Malmö and Trelleborg and finally through the Kaiser Wilhelm Kanal via Brunsbüttel to Cuxhaven. There the HENRY DUNANT had a narrow escape from a bombardment by the allied airforces. In the afternoon of 8 March 1945 she finally reached the Dutch port Delfzijl.
On 15 October 1945 the ship was given back to the US War Shipping Administration in New York and was renamed back EL ORIENTE. Simultaneously she received her initial call sign WICQ.
In January 1946 the Patapsco Scrap Corp. in Bethlehem bought the cargo ship for scrapping. She laid first in the roads of James River until she was broken up at Baltimore in February 1947.