Her last voyage was under charter to the Minister of Economic Warfare for Malaya, complete with Malay crew, in the final days before Singapore fell to the Japanese on 15 February 1942, during World War II.
A party comprising Commander J. Petrie, Lieutenant Colonel Goodfellow, Captain Morgan, Second Lieutenant Hemby, Sergeant Lamb and from the Ministry of Economic Warfare were ordered by Rear Admiral Ernest John Spooner of the Naval H.Q Singapore Base to establish an escape route from Singapore when its fall to the Japanese became inevitable.
The ship picked up sixteen Chinese escapees adrift in a disabled motor tanking off Tjombol Island, and a defective compass caused the party to miss their planned landfall on Sumatra at the mouth of the Indragiri River at Prigi Raja.
The Hong Cheun tied up at Jambie Wharf, where she was set on fire by a blazing oil barge which became wedged alongside her.
The escape party, including the sixteen Chinese escapees, proceeded over land by road in two trucks and a car provided by the Dutch authorities and reached Padang, after continuous day and night driving, on 17 February 1942.