SS Statendam (1924)

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SS Statendam was a steam turbine transatlantic liner. She was the third of five Holland America Line ("Nederlandsch-Amerikaansche Stoomvaart Maatschappij" or NASM) ships to be called Statendam. She was built to replace the second Statendam, which the UK Government had requisitioned as a troop ship in 1915, and which had been sunk in 1918. The new Statendam's building was unusually protracted. Her keel was laid in Ireland in 1921, but she was not launched until 1924. Further delays in her building led NASM to have her towed to be completed in the Netherlands. Statendam was economical to run, and survived the shipping slump caused by the Great Depression. She was the largest ship in NASM's fleet, and in the merchant fleet of the Netherlands, until the second Nieuw Amsterdam was completed in 1938. From late April to late December each year she ran scheduled services between Rotterdam and Hoboken via Boulogne, Southampton and Plymouth. From late December to late April most years she went cruising, usually to the Caribbean. In early 1934 she made one cruise from New York to the Mediterranean. After the Second World War began in September 1939, Statendam's westbound Atlantic crossings carried thousands of US and European refugees. From December 1939 she was laid up in Rotterdam. During the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940 she was burnt out, and that August her hulk was scrapped.