Germany occupied Belgium in the First World War, so IMM had Belganland completed in 1917 as a cargo ship, transferred to the UK-based White Star Line and renamed Belgic.

From 1924 onward she made her name making annual cruises around the World, leaving New York in November or December and returning in April the next year.

When Belgic docked at Pier 16 on the North River in New York at the beginning of July 1920, White Star Line officials found that cloth worth about $60,000 was missing from her cargo.

Passengers would have the option to see archæological sites including the Tomb of Tutankhamun,[25] whose recent discovery in November 1922 had inspired great popular interest in Egyptology.

But when she arrived, the Chinese fort at Wusong had been firing at British shipping on the Huangpu River, so U.S. Navy Admiral Charles B. McVay Jr. sent the destroyer USS Borie to escort her safely in and out of port.

She was to repeat her previous year's route via Cuba, the Panama Canal and California, where she would embark another 75 passengers in San Francisco, and continue to Hawaii, Japan, China, Philippines, Java and Malaya.

[47] She had previously been a stewardess and nurse for White Star Line, and survived the sinking of both RMS Titanic in 1912 and HMHS Britannic in 1916, which earned her the nickname "Miss Unsinkable".

On 6 May 1927, on the ship's first eastbound voyage that year, a woman passenger found that she had been robbed of jewels, cash and cheques worth a total of $12,000, and her passport.

On 5 December on a westbound crossing, a heavy sea swept over her starboard bow, smashing the iron standard supporting her ship's bell on Belgenland's forecastle and a ventilator to her crew's galley.

She followed her usual westbound route, and was scheduled to pass through the Panama Canal on Christmas Day 1928, and to embark another 175 passengers in San Francisco on 5 January 1929.

[69] That September her westbound passengers included Eleanor Roosevelt, her sons Franklin Jr and John II, and friends Nancy Cook and Marion Dickerman.

[74] When Belgenland left New York for Antwerp on 23 August 1930, her passengers included the gangster Legs Diamond, travelling under the false name of John Nolan.

[83] The longest radiotelephone connection made on Belgenland's voyage was between Colombo and Australia via Imperial Wireless Chain stations in England, a distance of about 18,000 miles.

Several thousand Cuban Jews gathered to welcome Einstein to the Havana Jewish Centre, including a choir of schoolchildren who sang Hatikvah and La Bayamesa to him.

[88] Passengers who joined Belgenland in Los Angeles included actor Douglas Fairbanks, who planned visits to Japan, Siam and India followed by a hunting tour of French Indochina.

The ship left New York each Saturday, staged a different Broadway theatre entertainment every night, and spent two days in Nova Scotia before returning.

[99] Belgenland already had her own palm court orchestra, which was a Belgian quintet who specialised in chamber music, but also played for balls and church services.

[96] For her first showboat cruise on 18 July she added a 14-piece big band and embarked entertainers including Lester Allen, Johnny Burke, Arthur "Bugs" Baer, Milt Gross, Harry Hershfield and Claire Windsor.

[104] On the fourth showboat cruise, which left New York on 8 August, the entertainers included Mildred Harris, former wife of Charlie Chaplin.

[110] Another Assistant U.S. Attorney, Edward Aronow, questioned a convicted extortionist serving a sentence in Suffolk County Jail on Long Island, who was a close friend of Fujimura.

Aronow said he believed that two men, posing as United States Department of Justice officers, had tried to blackmail Fujimura, and had threatened to have him prosecuted under the Mann Act.

[117] However, on 5 October an electrician working at an apartment in West 35th Street found an empty black leather wallet with "Hasashi Fujimura" (sic) stamped on it in gold letters, and handed it in to the NYPD.

Catering Department staff were briefed that they would have no meal breaks, and should make sandwiches or fill rolls for themselves in advance so that they could work continuously all day.

This gave her crew a very short time between trips to clean all her cabins, kitchens and public rooms, take on water and victuals, bunker her, and embark the next set of passengers.

[125] On 2 September Belgenland reached New York and left the next day to start another short cruise,[128] which took 850 passengers on a four-day round trip to Bermuda.

[131] The dance generated interest for a 15-day Caribbean cruise aboard Belgenland to Cristóbal, Colón, La Guaira, Curaçao and Kingston, Jamaica.

On 18 March 1933 she left New York[134] for Antwerp via Le Havre with passengers including Albert Einstein,[135] who planned to return home to Germany.

[136] When Belgenland reached Antwerp on 28 March, he disembarked and changed his destination to London, declared he had "no intention of ever returning to Germany",[137] and renounced his German citizenship.

Each cruise visited Gibraltar, Monte Carlo, Corsica, Elba, Civitavecchia (for Rome), Naples, Valletta, Tunis, Ceuta and Vigo.

The first and third were to start from New York on 6 July and 3 August and visit Saint Thomas, Curaçao, La Guaira, Colón, the Panama Canal, and Kingston, Jamaica.