After Germany invaded Denmark in April 1940 Algarve was transferred to the UK Ministry of War Transport.

The first was a cargo steamship that was built in Scotland in 1899, bought by the UK government in 1917 and sunk by a U-boat that same year.

Algarve had a 175 NHP, three-cylinder triple-expansion engine, built by David Rowan & Co of Glasgow, Scotland.

The UK Ministry of War Transport took over Algarve, registered her in London and contracted Christian Salvesen to manage her.

She made her return transatlantic crossing with Convoy SC 9 from Sydney, Nova Scotia, which reached Liverpool on 9 November.

From 26 November 1940 she took part in FS (Forth South) and FN (Forth North) series convoys between the Firth of Forth and the Thames Estuary.