In September 1939, she was requisitioned as a troopship after refitting at Liverpool. She had a collision off Malta with a French troop ship called the Marietta Pacha and was escorted to Malta by the armed merchant cruiser , but was repaired in time to take part in the Norwegian campaign. On 16 June 1940, while "en route" to St Nazaire as part of Operation Ariel (the evacuation of the Second British Expeditionary Force from France), she was damaged by near-misses from German bombs and was escorted back to Liverpool for repairs.