SS California was a British 16,792 GRT steam turbine ocean liner built in Glasgow in 1923 for the Anchor Line. She was a sister ship of Cameronia, Tyrrhenia, Tuscania, Transylvania and Caledonia. In 1939 the Royal Navy requisitioned her. She was bombed and abandoned along with the Duchess of York west of Spain by a Luftwaffe attack in July 1943.

Convoy Faith was a small, fast Allied convoy of World War II. It suffered heavy casualties when attacked by German long-range bombers while en route from Britain to West Africa in July 1943. The convoy comprised two large troopships and a freighter, later joined by two destroyers and two frigates as escorts at various dates after it sailed on 7 July 1943. The two troopships, SS California and SS Duchess of York, both former liners, were carrying military personnel to West Africa, where locally recruited troops were to be embarked as reinforcements for the Allied forces in Burma and the Middle East. The freighter MV Port Fairy, carrying ammunition, was ultimately bound for Australia and New Zealand via the Panama Canal.