Between 1929 and 1932 Messageries Maritimes (MM) had three new ocean liners built for its routes between France and the Far East.

Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire in Saint-Nazaire launched Félix Roussel in 1929 and Georges Philippar in 1930.

[3] The ship's Minoan décor was part of a programme by MM's President, Georges Philippar, to give MM's ships unusual revivalist décors from various ancient cultures, to get away from the usual 19th- and early 20th-century de luxe styles.

The "Neo-Aegean" design, based on Sir Arthur Evans' reconstructions at Knossos mixed with Art Deco, received much publicity.

[5] The ship had twin screws, each driven by a French-built Sulzer ten-cylinder single-acting two-stroke diesel engine.

The combined power of her twin engines was rated at 2,490 NHP[4] or 11,000 shp (8,200 kW), and gave her a speed of 16 knots (30 km/h).

She called at Port Said, Djibouti, Colombo, Penang, Singapore, Saigon, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

[3] At the same time, Chantier naval de La Ciotat built her a new bow, which lengthened her by 30 feet (9 m).

She reached Mormugao in Portuguese India, on 15 October 1943 carrying 1,525 priests, nuns, Protestant missionaries, and businessmen with their families who had been stranded in areas captured by Japan.

On 19 October, the neutral Swedish Gripsholm arrived carrying 1,340 Japanese officials and businessmen and their families.

Teia Maru left Mormugao on 21 October and returned the repatriated Japanese to Yokohama on 14 November.

She sailed again to Singapore with convoy Hi-63 in May 1944, and returned to Japan in June carrying about 1,000 Australian, British, Dutch, and other PoWs who had worked on the Burma Railway.

On 17 August the convoy entered the South China Sea from Mako naval base in the Pescadores.