SS Canberra was an ocean liner, which later operated on cruises, in the P&O fleet from 1961 to 1997. She was built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland at a cost of £17 million. The ship was named on 17 March 1958, after the federal capital of Australia, Canberra. She was launched on 16 March 1960, sponsored by Dame Pattie Menzies, wife of the then Prime Minister of Australia, Robert Menzies. She entered service in May 1961, and made her maiden voyage starting in June. In the 1982 Falklands War she served as a troopship. In 1997 the singer and songwriter Gerard Kenny released the single "Farewell Canberra" which was specially composed for the last voyage.

P&O had placed an order for plans for two new ocean liners, one with Harland and Wolff for £17 Million in 1956. On September 23, 1957, on Queen's Island, Belfast, the first keel plates of yard no.1621 were laid on slipway 14. She had a gross tonnage of 45,733 GRT and dimensions of 819 feet (250 m) by 103 feet (31 m).

Dame Pattie Menzies, wife of the Australian Prime Minister had been given the honor of christening the liner. Canberra left the slipway at Harland and Wolff's Belfast shipyard on 17 March 1960, with the cheers from the dockers and shipyard workers, as well as 11,000 onlookers watching her leave. She began sea trials before taking up her maiden voyage in June 1961.

The SS Canberra was the last ocean liner built by Harland and Wolff shipyard. It was also the shipyard's largest ship built since the White Star Line's HMHS Britannic.

P&O commissioned Canberra to operate the combined P&O–Orient Line service between the United Kingdom and Australasia and designed her to carry 548 first-class passengers and 1,650 tourist class. Too big for Tilbury she was based at Southampton. Her first voyage set out on 2 June 1961 through the Suez Canal and called at Colombo, Fremantle, Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, Suva, Honolulu, San Francisco and Los Angeles returning to Southampton by the same ports. By mid-1963 she had spent many months in dry dock in Southampton and in the builder's yard for repairs to her electrical and mechanical systems.

The era of mass air travel had begun by the time the Canberra was laid down and air travel prices fell relentlessly in the early 1960s to challenge P&O's lowest fares. In the second half of 1962 Canberra made a short cruise from Southampton followed by two more to New York. More cruises followed but nevertheless most of the ship's first decade was spent on the Australia run.

At the end of 1972 she was withdrawn and refitted to carry 1,500 single-class passengers on cruises. Unusually, this transition from an early life as a purpose-built ocean liner to a long and successful career in cruising, occurred without any major external alterations, and with only minimal internal and mechanical changes over the years. One of her public rooms included a 'Cricketers Tavern', which contained a collection of bats and ties from cricket clubs all over the world; she also had the William Fawcett reading/writing room, named for the first P&O ship.

In 1961, while still a student at the Royal College in London, the now famous British artist David Hockney (born 1937) was commissioned to create a mural for the 'Pop Inn', a special lounge for teenagers onboard. Hockney graffitied and drew on the walls for five days and the fee earned assisted him to travel to New York for the first time.^{[citation needed]}