Builder: Harland & Wolff Ltd, Glasgow, Scotland.
Completed: March 1923.
Gross tonnage: 15,652.
Dimensions: 576ft x 67ft. Depth 45ft.
Engines: Four steam turbines, single-reduction geared.
Screws: Twin.
Decks: Five
Normal speed:15 knots.
Passenger accommodation: 223 first and 363 tourist class.
Maiden voyage: Rotterdam–Boulogne –Plymouth-New York on April18, 1923.
Engaged in the Rotterdam–Boulogne–Southampton–New York service with a call at Plymouth in place of Southampton eastbound.
In September 1939 she rescued survivors from the sinking British aircraft carrier Courageous.
Seized by the Germans in May 1940 and used for a submarine depot ship in the Baltic Sea. Sunk at Hamburg on August 2, 1945. and refloated on October 25, 1945.
Taken in tow to Ymuiden, Holland, where she arrived on January 16, 1946, for temporary repairs. Left Ymuiden on January 31, 1947, for Rotterdam to be rebuilt and placed back in service in early 1947. Commenced her last voyage for the Holland-America Line on October 30, 1953, from Rotterdam to New York and was sold for scrap to the Bethlehem Steel Corporation at Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States in the same year.
Sister ship: Volendam.
SG1169 North Atlantic Passenger Liners since 1900. Nicholas T Cairis