Prins Olav was sunk by German bombers on 9 June 1940, while attempting to escape to the United Kingdom as the Norwegian Campaign was coming to an end.

Alexandra was intended to supplement the larger British royal yacht Victoria and Albert, which had proven too large and unwieldy to carry out all her tasks satisfactorily.

[4] In 1936 she was taken out of service for a complete rebuild at Trondhjems mekaniske Værksted and the Nordenfjeldske Dampskibsselskab's own repair yard Nordre Verft in Trondheim.

[6][12][13] The rebuilt ship, the largest and grandest in Hurtigruten service at the time, bore little exterior resemblance to the original royal yacht.

[2][14][15] Some four months after completing her rebuild, Prins Olav ran aground off Brønnøysund in Nordland on 25 September 1937, having to be recovered by the salvage ship Traust.

[11][16] The outbreak of the Second World War led to concerns in the Norwegian government with regards to the economy, and as a savings measure a decision to limit the Hurtigruten service from the ordinary seven sailings from Bergen a week to five was taken on 1 October 1939.

As the fighting in Norway neared its end with the Allied evacuation from the country following the German attack into France, the Norwegian authorities instructed Prins Olav's captain to sail west to the Faroe Islands.

[4][11][14][22] On 7 June 1940 Prins Olav bunkered in the port of Hammerfest in western Finnmark, before sailing to Kågsund in Troms, where the Royal Norwegian Navy's chief of staff, Captain Gunnar Hovdenak, was organizing the evacuation of merchant vessels from Northern Norway to the United Kingdom.

Prins Olav embarked Captain Hovdenak and steamed alone towards the Faroe Islands in the early morning on 8 June, attempting to join the last of the British evacuation convoys to have left Norway.

[4][11][14][18][23][24] While Prins Olav had been bunkering in Hammerfest, false rumours had been circulating in the civilian population of the town that King Haakon and his government were on board.

Gruppe of Kampfgeschwader 26, despatched from Værnes Air Station near Trondheim to search for ships trying to escape from Northern Norway, and came under attack.

After managing to avoid being hit for more than an hour by evasive manoeuvring at full speed, dodging 14 bombs, Prins Olav suffered a near miss which damaged her machinery and left her dead in the water.

Shortly after the crew had boarded life boats and left the ship, Prins Olav was struck by two bombs in the stern and caught fire before later sinking at 67°07′N 01°00′E / 67.117°N 1.000°E / 67.117; 1.000.

[30] Ariadne, which had served as a hospital ship during the Norwegian Campaign but disembarked her medical personnel in Tromsø and had her red crosses painted over before departing, was also sunk by the German bombers, with the loss of nine lives.

Arrow had been despatched after the British evacuation convoy had received a partial emergency radio signal from Prins Olav before the latter ship's antenna was knocked out in the German bombing.

The captain of Prins Olav, Reidar Mauseth, testified at the hearing that the German bombers had been intentionally strafing the survivors in the life boats.