After the fall of Singapore the vessel sailed to Batavia (now Jakarta) and with a mixed complement of RN and RAN reservists and civilian Chinese seamen, was engaged in the 62-day tow (at an average speed of three knots) of the disabled from the Javan port of Tanjung Priok to Fremantle, Western Australia and subsequently part of the way to Melbourne to Albany. This tow was the longest ever involving an RAN warship. Some of her crew had previously served on the British cargo liner , which had been sunk at Singapore in an air raid.