Asheville rendered prompt assistance in evacuating injured men, providing medical aid, and in preventing the blaze from spreading to nearby ships and docks.

She was then dry docked during her stay at Norfolk Naval Yard from 25 June to 2 July, and conducted various trials off Provincetown, Massachusetts, before she visited that port on Independence Day, 1921.

She then visited New York City, 10 to 25 July, before she proceeded back down the eastern seaboard to pay return calls at Norfolk and Charleston, undergoing repairs and alterations at the latter.

Although slated to relieve Sacramento on the east coast of Mexico, Asheville was ordered to proceed "without delay" to Nicaragua, as the Commander, Special Service Squadron had received word on 26 August, of a revolution in that country.

[2] Asheville spent the next few months operating off the Pacific coast of Central America, her ports of call including Puntarenas, Costa Rica; Puná and Guayaquil, Ecuador; Talara, Peru; Corinto, Nicaragua; and La Unión, El Salvador.

In early January 1922, Asheville carried the governor, Jay Johnson Morrow, and physicians to the port of La Palma, Panama, to alleviate the suffering in the wake of floods that had devastated the region of Darién.

During April and May 1922, Asheville underwent conversion from a coal-burning vessel to an oil-burning one, the first of her type to be so altered, and within a month of her leaving the navy yard had won the engineering trophy for ships of her class.

[2] Asheville remained at Fuzhou until 5 December 1922, when she sailed for Qingdao, to be present during the transfer of the former German-leased territory of Jiaozhou Bay from Japanese authority to Chinese under the 1922 Japanese-Chinese Shantung Agreement.

She "showed the flag" at that North China port, ready to protect American lives and property if the need arose, for the balance of the month of December before she sailed for Shanghai on the last day of 1922, and arrived at her destination to take on stores, fuel, and for recreation for her crew, on 2 January 1923.

Asheville remained at that port until 24 February before she shifted to Hong Kong for fuel, supplies, a dry docking and minor repairs; she stayed there for a month before she returned to Shantou on 27 March.

"[2] Over the next few years, Asheville continued to operate with the Asiatic Fleet, ready to "show the flag" or put a landing force ashore to protect lives and property.

In the spring of 1928, Asheville replaced Helena as flagship of the South China Patrol, and served in that capacity until relieved by her sister ship Tulsa on 6 April 1929.

Between 5 August 1929 and 17 June 1931, Sailors and Marines from Asheville served ashore in Nicaragua on six separate occasions, as the United States maintained forces in that country to cooperate with the Nicaraguan government in the protection of American lives and property.

Commander Ward W. Waddell, Asheville's captain, showed excellent judgement and initiative by anchoring his ship close to the town's wharf and turning on his searchlights and training out his guns.

"By common report," the Commander, Special Service Squadron, wrote later, "any further attempts of the bandits against Puerto Cabezas immediately ceased and the fear and alarm of the citizens were greatly allayed .

"[2] Detached from the Special Service Squadron on 27 January 1932, Asheville returned to the Asiatic Fleet soon thereafter, and, as in 1926 and 1927, provided landing forces to protect American lives and property between 18 and 23 March 1932, and between 27 June and 9 October of the same year.

Over the next few years, Asheville continued to operate principally in Chinese waters in the traditional role of "showing the flag" and standing by to protect American lives and property as the occasion demanded.

The gunboat immediately sailed to return to Shantou, arrived there on the afternoon of 11 May just as sailors of the Japanese Special Naval Landing Force were entering the city, and dropped anchor in the outer harbor, near the British destroyer Diana.

The following day, Asheville led Diana into the inner harbor, and moored to a buoy between the American consulate and the Hope Memorial Hospital, giving a "sense of security" to the neutral residents in the Kulangsu International Settlement.

Soon thereafter, Marblehead, with Captain John T. G. Stapler, Commander, South China Patrol, embarked, arrived at Amoy, releasing Asheville to proceed back to Shantou.

[2] With the increasing tensions in the Far East, Admiral Thomas C. Hart, Commander in Chief, US Asiatic Fleet, withdrew Asheville and her sister ship Tulsa to the Philippines.

Observing 27 Japanese bombers, land attack planes from the Takao and 1st Kōkūtai, headed to seaward from Cavite soon thereafter, Asheville manned her air-defense stations as guns on Corregidor opened fire on the enemy.

Asheville stood out of Manila Bay a half-hour into the mid watch on 11 December 1941, and, steaming via the Celebes Sea and Balikpapan, Borneo, ultimately reached Surabaya, Java, three days after Christmas of 1941.

On the morning of 1 March 1942, Vice Admiral William A. Glassford, Commander, Southwest Pacific Force, formerly the US Asiatic Fleet, ordered the remaining American naval vessels to retire to Australian waters.

Not until after World War II, however, did the story of her last battle emerge, when a survivor of the heavy cruiser Houston, told of meeting, in prison camp, Fireman 1st Class Fred L. Brown.

Hampered by engine troubles and sailing alone, Asheville was discovered on 3 March 1942 by a shipborne scout plane south of Java and overtaken by a Japanese surface force, led by Vice Admiral Nobutake Kondō, consisting of the destroyers Arashi and Nowaki, and the heavy cruiser Maya.