After completing sea trials, "Nizam" was assigned to Scapa Flow, where she was assigned to fleet duties, then retasked as an escort for convoys crossing the Atlantic. In April 1941, the destroyer joined a convoy sailing to Gibraltar, then sailed around Africa to meet the troop transports "Queen Mary" and "Queen Elizabeth", which "Nizam" helped escort to Alexandria. Around the same time, all watchkeeping sailors staged a mutiny in response to alterations to watchkeeping and messing arrangements by locking themselves into their messdeck compartments. Following mediation between the sailors and the officers, the captain agreed to restore the original arrangements and decided not to charge the sailors, after which the watchkeepers returned to duty.