after sailing in convoy to pearl harbor and back between 4 september and 24 september 1942, "cygnus" cleared san francisco, california, 10 october and arrived in auckland, new zealand, 3 november. until 5 january 1944 she operated on a regular run carrying chilled meats and vegetables from auckland to the american bases at tongatapu, tonga islands; pago pago, american samoa; bora bora, society islands; cook islands; and funafuti, ellice islands. between 18 january 1944 and 9 september 1945 she sailed on similar duty from auckland and napier, new zealand, to espiritu santo and efate, new hebrides, the solomon islands; and nouméa, new caledonia.