It was when Haakon, Maud and Olav stepped off Heimdal at Vippetangen wharf near Akershus Fortress that the Norwegian people got their first chance to see their new royals.

Amongst these trips were to the International Yacht Racing Union's fourth annual Europe week sailing regatta, held in Horten 14 to 21 July 1914,[3][4] and when the King went to visit Molde shortly after its great fire in 1916.

When Minister of Justice Paal Berg read the annexation declaration on the behalf of King Haakon VII near the settlement of Longyearbyen, Heimdal provided an honour guard of sailors and fired a salute with her guns.

[14] When the Roald Amundsen, Lincoln Ellsworth and Italian explorer Umberto Nobile in 1926 mounted a successful expedition to overfly the North Pole in the airship Norge, Heimdal served as a transport and support vessel at Kings Bay, Spitsbergen.

At Tromsø she served as a guard and support ship for the Heinkel He 115 seaplane bombers based at the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service station at Skattøra.

During the two months of fighting Heimdal was based at Karlsøy Municipality,[18] serving as a guard ship and escorting troopships carrying Norwegian soldiers from the Tromsø area down to the Narvik front.

[3] After evacuating their headquarters in Molde on 30 April the king and his entourage was moved north on the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Glasgow to Rystraumen in Troms county where he boarded his old ship Heimdal once again.

Heimdal brought the King and his people to Tromsø, from where they moved to Balsfjord Municipality where they remained until leaving for the United Kingdom on 7 June.

At 0355 hrs on 8 June Heimdal, accompanied by the 406-ton minesweeper HNoMS Thorodd,[26] left Norwegian waters and started her voyage into exile.

She served alongside the fellow Norwegian ship Ranen at Port Edgar in the latter function, until being deactivated and laid up at Burntisland, Scotland on 29 October 1943.