SS Nieuw Amsterdam (II)

SS Nieuw Amsterdam was a Dutch transatlantic ocean liner that was built in 1938 and scrapped in 1974. She was the second Holland America Line (Nederlandsch-Amerikaansche Stoomvaart Maatschappij, or NASM) ship to be named after the former Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, now New York.

When new, Nieuw Amsterdam was the largest and swiftest ship in NASM's fleet, the largest ship in the Dutch merchant fleet, and the largest ship ever built in the Netherlands. She succeeded SS Statendam as NASM's flagship. She was the Netherlands' "ship of state", just as SS Normandie was for France, RMS Queen Mary was for the United Kingdom, and SS Rex was for Italy.

Her peacetime career, both before and after the Second World War, was seasonal. She made transatlantic crossings between Rotterdam and Hoboken, New Jersey from about April to December, and cruises from about December to April. She cruised from NASM's terminal in Hoboken, mostly to the Caribbean. She twice cruised around South America: the first time early in 1939, and the second time early in 1950.

From 1940 to 1946 Nieuw Amsterdam was an Allied troopship. She served mostly in and around the Indian Ocean, but also in the Atlantic, and occasionally in the Pacific.