"Pirie" completed her first escort run in late May: she escorted two ships from Townsville to Sydney, then joined a convoy of fourteen merchant ships and five other corvettes back to Townsville. The mood of the ship's company continued to deteriorate, and on 8 June, a large number of sailors met in the foremost messdeck. A complaint about the living conditions was made to the coxswain to pass on to Mills, but the commander was uncompassionate. They wanted to highlight their grievances and requests—a short period of shore leave while "Pirie" was inactive, their overdue mail to be sent to the ship, and their pay to be delivered—and resolved that the next morning, instead of reporting for duty, half the junior sailors and half the stokers would, instead of reporting for duty, "sit here and see what happens". Older sailors and anyone above the rank of able seaman were not allowed to participate, so the corvette could deploy immediately if necessary, and there were no repercussions those who had families to support and might wish to continue their naval career after the war.