On August 4, 1947, the 10,471 ton Tien Loong was the first steamship owned, managed, financed and crewed by Chinese, to sail from Shanghai across the Atlantic Oceans to France. She arrived in Le Havre, France on October 28. Chinese Maritime Trust (a sister company of Island Navigation Corp.) had signed another contract with the Belgian Economic Delegation in the U.S.A. to transport 100,000 tons of coal and charcoal from Antwerp, Belgium to Norfolk, Virginia, USA. When the Tien Loong arrived in France, the unprecedented reception was reported in French and Shanghai newspapers. Three months after Tien Loong's great success, S.S. Tung Ping [], the largest Chinese ocean-going ship, sailed from Shanghai to San Francisco on February 25, 1948. She was then back to the Philippines to transport a full ship load of Copra to Venezuela, Colombia and Barranquilla. After she completed this voyage, she went on to load cargo at New Orleans and became the first all-Chinese ship to visit that U.S. port. These pioneering voyages created headlines and the ships were given a warm welcome at ports, especially by overseas Chinese living there.

Both S.S. Tien Loong and S.S. Tung Ping were the triumphant pioneers of the Chinese merchant ships which crossed the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. They opened the markets for Chinese merchants to ship the Chinese goods destined for Europe, United States and South America as well as provided the ocean tranportation services to foreign merchants who shipped their goods among various countries. Their successes played a very important role for the future expansion of the C.Y. Tung fleet around the globe.