She was reclassified as gunboat in 1934 and remained in Italian service in the far east from 1933 to 1943, when she was scuttled in China, during World War II.

She was then recovered by the Imperial Japanese Navy and taken into service as Okitsu, spending the remainder of the war escorting convoys.

After remaining inactive at the Italian naval base in Tianjin[1] since 1940, Lepanto was scuttled at her moorings by her own crew on 9 September 1943, after Italy's surrender to the Allies.

[2] On 8 November 1943, Lepanto was refloated by Naval 1st Construction Department (海軍第一工作部, Kaigun Dai-1 Kōsaku-Bu) of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN).

Her known career in the Republic of China Navy from that point was fairly uneventful, except for the capture of a British merchant ship in July 1950.