SS Statendam (1924)

Statendam during her sea trials on 3 April 1929
History
Netherlands
Name	Statendam
Owner	Maildienst der Holland Amerika Lijn
Operator	Holland America Line
Port of registry	Rotterdam
Route	Rotterdam – Hoboken
Builder	1921–24: Harland & Wolff, Belfast 1927–29: Wilton's, Schiedam
Yard number	612
Laid down	11 August 1921
Launched	11 September 1924
Completed	3 April 1929
Maiden voyage	11 April 1929
Out of service	Laid up, 9 December 1939
Refit	1933
Identification	Code letters PTBN (until 1933) Call sign PHSN (by 1934)
Fate	Burnt out May 1940; Scrapped August 1940
General characteristics
Type	Ocean liner
Tonnage	16,969 DWT 1929: 29,511 GRT, 17,749 NRT 1933: 28,921 GRT, 16,920 NRT
Length	696.8 ft (212.37 m) overall 670.4 ft (204.3 m) registered
Beam	81.4 ft (24.8 m)
Draught	33 ft 3+1⁄2 in (10.15 m)
Depth	49.4 ft (15.1 m)
Decks	4
Installed power	4,644 NHP, 19,500 shp
Propulsion	6 × Steam turbines Single reduction gearing 2 × Propellers
Speed	19 knots (35 km/h)
Capacity	passengers: 150 × 1st class, 344 × 2nd class, 800 × 3rd class cargo: 580,620 cu ft (16,441 m3) grain; 540,723 cu ft (15,311.6 m3) bale; 28,230 cu ft (799 m3) refrigerated
Crew	300
Sensors and processing systems	by 1931: Submarine signalling, Wireless direction finding by 1934: Gyrocompass

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.^[1] 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.