Built in 1922 for the Indo-China Steam Navigation Company, the vessel was initially requisitioned for service with the Royal Navy (RN) in December 1941 as a water carrier.

[1] 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 HMAS Vendetta from the Javan port of Tanjung Priok to Fremantle, Western Australia and subsequently part of the way to Melbourne to Albany.

[2] Some of her crew had previously served on the British cargo liner Talthybius, which had been sunk at Singapore in an air raid.

[5] HMAS Ping Wo was later used as a stores ship and from January 1945 as a repair and works depot vessel in the New Guinea theatre of operations, winding up as the RAN administrative headquarters at Madang.

After the end of naval operations in New Guinea, HMAS Ping Wo was paid off and returned to her owners in Hong Kong on 24 June 1946.