Post-war years
Veendam was refitted as a two-class ship, with berths for 223 passengers in first class and 363 in tourist class.[3] Veendam town council presented her with a new certificate and aerial photograph of the town.[6]
On 31 January 1947 she sailed from Amsterdam to Rotterdam, where she was returned to her owners.[72] She left Rotterdam on 21 February 1947,[3] called at Southampton, and reached Hoboken on 4 March carrying 576 passengers. This was 24 more than her regular capacity, and NASM stated that berths on her transatlantic crossings were fully booked until 1 August.[73] Minimum one-way fares were $260 first class and $160 tourist class.[74] She was the first NASM ship to call at Southampton since the Second World War.[75] Until 1940, NASM transatlantic ships had served Boulogne. After the war this did not resume, as the port was not yet in a condition to resume handling large ocean liners.[76]
In her first few months back in civilian service, Veendam carried notable passengers including the Earl and Countess Granville, Maharaja and Maharani of Indore,[77] International Court of Justice judge John Erskine Read,[78] Professors Charles Best and Frederick Keeble, and actresses Rita Hayworth and Greta Keller.[79][80][81] She also carried numerous Dutch emigrants, including large families intending to farm in the USA.[81][82][83]
In August 1947 NASM announced that Veendam and the flagship SS Nieuw Amsterdam (1937) would resume cruising from Hoboken that December.[84] That November the company announced that Veendam would make three six-day cruises to Bermuda, leaving Hoboken on 3 February, 16 March and 27 April 1948. Fares were to range from $140 to $300, plus 15 per cent tax.[85] However, crossing from Rotterdam to Hoboken in late January 1948, Veendam met five days of adverse weather in the Atlantic, and at times had to reduce speed to as low as 5 kn. She reached Hoboken on 3 February, two days late.[86] Her first Bermuda cruise started 24 hours later, but also finished 24 hours later.[87]
On 7 May 1948 Veendam left Hoboken carrying cargo that included post-war aid to the Netherlands,[88] and Dutch paintings worth a total of $250,000, including works by Rembrandt, Jacob van Ruisdael, Maarten van Heemskerck, and Gerard ter Borch, which had been exhibited in the USA.[89] Her passengers on that crossing included the conductor Pierre Monteux.[88] Notable passengers on other transatlantic crossings by Veendam in 1948 included chess Grandmaster Samuel Reshevsky, who was returning from the World Chess Championship 1948,[90] and Ulster Unionist Party MP Brian Faulkner, recently elected as the youngest member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.[91]
On 1 September 1948 Veendam left Hoboken on a six-day cruise to Bermuda for Labor Day weekend.[92] NASM organised the cruise in conjunction with Furness Bermuda Line.[93]
On 23 December 1948 Veendam left Hoboken on a cruise to the West Indies.[94] Her schedule for the rest of that season was to alternate one-week trips to and from Bermuda with 18-day cruises to Caribbean islands and the Caribbean coast of South America.[95][96] However, on 6 February 1949 NASM announced that it had cancelled one of her 18-day cruises, which was due to start on 29 March 1949, and replaced it with two shorter cruises: a 10-day trip to Havana and Nassau starting on 29 March, and a seven-day trip to Bermuda starting on 9 April. Minimum fares were $195 to Havana and Nassau and $150 to Bermuda.[97]
Veendam was fully booked with 450 passengers for an 11-day cruse to Havana and Nassau that she started from Hoboken on 23 December 1949.[98] Other cruise operators reported that bookings for Christmas cuirses were about 25 per cent lower than in the previous year. CGT even cancelled a 14-day cruise that the liner SS De Grasse was due to start on 23 December, the same day as Veendam's Christmas cruise. NASM reported that a cruise on Veendam starting from Hoboken on 9 February 1950 was fully booked by the end of December.[99]
