She sailed first to Mare Island, California, then joined the Special Service Squadron and cruised the Caribbean, calling at Central American and West Indies ports, into 1932. She departed Balboa, Canal Zone, on 11 January 1932 bound for San Diego and San Francisco, preparatory to crossing the Pacific for duty with the Asiatic Fleet. She arrived at Shanghai, China, on 1 April 1932 and remained in adjacent waters throughout the gradually worsening crisis, just short of war, during the rest of the 1930s. With other U.S. forces, she helped to protect national interests during this period. Ordered home toward the end of the decade, the veteran gunboat departed Cavite on 12 January 1939 for New York, via the Mediterranean. She earned the nickname "the Galloping Ghost of the China Coast".
