Nieuw Amsterdam (ship, 1906)
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The Nieuw Amsterdam (I) was a 1906 commissioned passenger ship of the Dutch shipping company Holland-America Line , which was used as a transatlantic liner on the North Atlantic and carried passengers , freight and mail from Rotterdam to New York . She was the largest ship in the shipping company until 1908. In 1932, after 26 years of service in Japan, it was scrapped.
The ship
In the years before the Nieuw Amsterdam was put into service , the Holland-America Line had great success with its newbuildings in Potsdam (12,606 GRT, 1900), Rijndam (12,527 GRT, 1901) and Noordam (12,531 GRT, 1902), as these ships are due to their large tween deck capacities had proven very profitable. The shipping company now wanted to be able to keep up with the competition in terms of first-class accommodation. There were no plans to set a size record or enter the race for the Blue Ribbon for the fastest Atlantic crossing, but the shipping company wanted at least a ship with an ambience that was just as luxurious as was already common for the British Cunard Line or the German HAPAG .
Therefore, the order for the 16,957 GRT Nieuw Amsterdam was placed with Harland & Wolff in Belfast , the keel of which was laid on January 21, 1904. The launch took place on September 28, 1905. She was the shipping company's first ship with this name (more followed in 1938 and 2010). The Nieuw Amsterdam was a 187.68 meter long and 20.08 meter wide passenger ship with a chimney, four masts and two propellers . The ship was equipped with a rig that was no longer up to date at the time , but it was never used.
The Nieuw Amsterdam was powered by eight-cylinder quadruple expansion steam engines from Harland & Wolff, which developed 10,800 PSi ("indicated horsepower") and enabled an average cruising speed of 16 knots and a maximum speed of 17.5 knots. She was the first Holland-America Line ship to have this type of engine.
A total of 440 passengers in the first, 246 in the second, 1078 in the third class and 1284 in the tween deck could be transported. The cabins and lounges of the first class were accordingly luxurious and opulent; there was, among other things, a Japanese tea room.
period of service
The test drives took place on February 22, 1906 and the handover to the owner on March 6, 1906. On 7 April 1906, ran Nieuw Amsterdam in Rotterdam for their maiden voyage to New York from. Captain Frederik Hendrik Bonjer (1855–1910), the shipping company's commodore, was in command . The Nieuw Amsterdam was the largest ship (and new flagship ) of the Holland-America Line when it was commissioned and held this position until the even larger Rotterdam (IV) (24,149 GRT) was commissioned in June 1908 . She was also the tenth largest ship in the world.
In November and December 1908, some renovations were made, including the addition of a glazed promenade deck , the first-class dining room was enlarged and the third-class area was slightly reduced in order to create more space for second-class accommodation. These changes increased the gross tonnage of the steamer to 17,149 GRT. In late 1910, Plymouth was added as a stopover to the route of the Nieuw Amsterdam .
In May 1912, as a direct consequence of the Titanic tragedy the month before, six additional lifeboats were added to the poop deck, a measure that many shipping companies took after the disaster.
During the First World War , the Nieuw Amsterdam remained in civil passenger traffic. Since US Americans preferred ships of neutral nations because of the dangers of submarine warfare , the Nieuw Amsterdam often had numerous American citizens on board during the war, who fled back to the USA from Europe . On April 11, 1918, the steamer ran aground near Maassluis in thick fog; The passengers were picked up by HAL tenders and brought to Rotterdam.
After the war, the interior of the Nieuw Amsterdam was changed and modernized several times. In May 1926, for example, the previous class system was abolished and instead the cabin and tourist classes were introduced. In the winter season of 1928, the ship made several cruises from Boston to Havana (Cuba), while the regular Atlantic crossings continued in the summer. In 1930, in the wake of the global economic crisis, there were price reductions and further modifications on board, but the ship, which was now getting on in years, proved to be no longer profitable in the long run.
After its last arrival in Rotterdam on October 2, 1931, the Nieuw Amsterdam was launched and sold to Japan on January 27, 1932 for demolition , where it was scrapped at Torazo Hashimoto in Osaka .