SS Volendam

SS Volendam was a 15,434 ton ocean liner operated by Holland America Line (Nederlandsch-Amerikaansche Stoomvaart Maatschappij). Built in 1922 by the Northern Irish firm of Harland & Wolff Ltd, in Govan Glasgow, a yard they acquired in 1912. Her sister ship TSS Veendam 15,450 tons, was built by Harland & Wolff the following year. She operated on transatlantic routes between Europe and the USA, sailing the Rotterdam –New York and Rotterdam –Halifax (Canada) service.

Her overall length of 575 ft with a beam of 67.3 ft, with two funnels, two masts, twin screws, gave her a speed of 15 knots. Passenger accommodation was divided into three classes and initially configured as: 263 in First class, 436 in Second class and 1,200 in Third class. She was purchased by Holland America Line while under construction, and launched on 6 July 1922. Her maiden voyage started on 4th Nov.1922 sailing from Rotterdam to New York.

In May 1926 she was refitted to carry First, Second, Tourist and Third class passengers, and by April 1930 changed yet again to carry First, Tourist and Third class. Her last Rotterdam - New York voyage commenced 5 April 1940 therefore she managed to escape before Holland was overrun and surrendered to the Germans May 1940.

War Service
She was amongst many Allied merchant ships who escaped to Britain from being interned in occupied countries during World War II. Together with ‘Nieuw Amsterdam’ (2) from the Holland America Line fleet served in the Allied cause. It was then chartered out to the British Ministry of War Transport and put into service. Under the terms of the charter the flag and crew would remain Dutch.

The Volendam (Master: Captain W.P. Wepster) had been assigned to the Children's Overseas Reception Board a British Government scheme quickly introduced to evacuate school children overseas to safety.

She sailed from Liverpool on Thursday 29 August 1940 with convoy OB-205, consisting of 32 other ships. On board she carried 879 passengers and 273 crew members. There were 320 children with their escorts and 286 other passengers. She was also the convoy ‘Commodore ship’ with Admiral G.H. Knowles on board.

On 30 August 1940 whilst several hundreds of miles off Malin Head, Northern Ireland and heading into the Atlantic, she was attacked about 11.00pm by a German submarine U-60, firing two torpedoes that hit No. 1 hold and damaged and caused flooding in No.2 hold. Captain Wepster then gave the order to abandon ship, and despite rough seas all 18 lifeboats got away safely. It was night-time and pitch-black. The only person lost was the 51 year old Dutch purser (head steward) Rijk Baron, who, as he was climbing down a rope ladder to one of the boats received a blow to the head from a swinging pulley, knocking him unconscious, causing him to fall into the sea and drown. A few weeks later his body washed up on the Scottish island of Gunna (an islet lying between the Inner Hebridean islands of Tiree and Coll) and he was buried in a little churchyard on Tiree.

The passengers and children were quickly rescued by other merchantmen in the convoy, including the British Oil tankers SS ‘BassetHound’ (1,174 tons), and ‘Valldemosa’ (7,222 tons), the Norwegian merchantman Olaf Fostenes (2,994 tons) (picking up 231 survivors, including 75 children), together with the destroyer HMS Sabre. They were taken to Greenock and other west coast ports in Scotland on 1 September. All 320 children were rescued. The Gourock Times, dated 6 September 1940, reported the event under the headlines ‘British Evacuee Ship Torpedoed’, announced how cheerful the children had been and that their ‘Ordeal Was a Great Adventure’. Whilst the children had been selected from all over the country, 74 were from Scotland. (Some children were later sent overseas again a few weeks later on the ill-fated SS City of Benares.)

The Volendam was taken in tow by the rescue tug HMS Salvonia (W 43) and beached on the Isle of Bute. Later she was re-floated and repaired at a Clyde shipyard. When the damage was being surveyed a second unexploded torpedo was found embedded in the bow. The U-boat had fired a spread of two torpedoes with a short interval the detonation of the first must have blown off the warhead from the second torpedo.

The ship was converted to a troop transport and returned to service in July 1941. She was used to ferry troops to North Africa in 1942 and for the Sicily landings in 1943, returning to North Africa with Italian and German prisoners. In 1944 she transported many American soldiers to Northern France and continued until 1945. During this time she had carried over 100,000 troops.

Post War
Volendam returned to Rotterdam in July 1945, she was partly reconditioned and in 1946 carried Dutch troops to what was then the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). In 1947 she was used in the Australia emigrant service and in June 1948 made her first Rotterdam - Quebec sailing for the Netherlands government with capacity for 1,500 single class passengers. In September 1948 she started her first Rotterdam - New York sailing and commenced her last voyage on this route in February 1951.

In October 1951 she made her last Rotterdam - Quebec - Rotterdam voyage and in 1952 was scrapped at Hendrik Ido Ambacht.