She was part of the first generation of turbine-powered steamships in the Holland America Line (Nederlandsch-Amerikaansche Stoomvaart Maatschappij, or NASM) fleet.

Veendam and her sister ship Volendam were NASM's largest turbine steamships until the flagship Statendam was completed in 1929.

On the evening of 7 September 1924, on a westbound voyage, one of Veendam's first class passengers, Arthur Dearth, was lost overboard.

[9] On the morning of 13 June 1925, on an eastbound voyage, a young woman passenger, Elizabeth Cromwell, was seen to fall or jump overboard from Veendam's starboard side.

[11] On 17 February 1926, Veendam left Hoboken carrying 400 passengers on a cruise to the Caribbean, calling at ports in the West Indies and Central America.

[13] At 04:40 hrs on 15 July 1927, Veendam was in fog about 5 nautical miles (9 km) east of the Nantucket Lightship when she was involved in a collision with the Norwegian cargo steamship Sagaland.

At 09:00 hrs on 19 May, the Isthmian Steamship Company cargo ship Anniston City collided with the Red Star Liner Pennland.

At 01:08 hrs the next morning, the Atlantic Transport Liner Minnewaska collided with the United Fruit Company refrigerated cargo ship La Maria.

[23] On 28 October 1928, Veendam arrived at Hoboken carrying the Royal Netherlands Army team on its way to the National Horse Show.

Her passengers included 250 pilgrims to the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin,[43] and she was scheduled to make a special call at Cobh for them to disembark.

[43] At the beginning of September 1932, members of the Bond voor Minder Marine Personeel (BMMP) trade union working for most Dutch shipping lines struck for better wages.

[45] Her Master anchored her near the West Hinder lightvessel, where a detachment of 30 Dutch Marines boarded the ship from a pilot boat.

On 11 September, NASM announced that Veendam would avoid the port of Rotterdam, in an attempt to prevent her crew from joining the dispute.

[50] However, the "contact commission" between the shipping companies and the BMMP established that an aggregate of the votes from the separate mass meetings at Amsterdam and Rotterdam produced a majority in favour of returning to work.

One exception was on 16 March 1935 in Hoboken, when Veendam arrived from Rotterdam in the morning, and Volendam was already in port, waiting to start a short cruise a week later.

[62] On 29 January 1938, Veendam's Master diverted her cruise to include an unscheduled call at the Dutch Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius.

[67] On the evening of 17 September 1939, U-29 sank the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Courageous in the Western Approaches, about 190 nautical miles (350 km) west-southwest of Dursey Island, with the loss of 519 men, including her commander.

[70] The next day a Kriegsmarine spokesman said that Veendam had been included on the list "by mistake", and that she may have been confused with the French cargo ship Vendôme.

On 28 April 1942 she was transferred to Hamburg, and from 1 May she was renamed Marinestützpunkt Tollerort ("Naval Base Great Place") to house U-boat crews on leave.

[80] In her first few months back in civilian service, Veendam carried notable passengers including the Earl and Countess Granville, Maharaja and Maharani of Indore,[81] International Court of Justice judge John Erskine Read,[82] Professors Charles Best and Frederick Keeble, and actresses Rita Hayworth and Greta Keller.

[88] 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.

[89] 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 knots (9 km/h).

[91] On 7 May 1948 Veendam left Hoboken carrying cargo that included post-war aid to the Netherlands,[92] 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.

NASM reported that a cruise on Veendam starting from Hoboken on 9 February 1950 was fully booked by the end of December.

[104] The loader appealed to Ryan, and longshoremen stopped work on two American Export Lines ships in Jersey City in a wildcat strike.

The internal ILA dispute spread to NASM's Fifth Street Pier in Hoboken, and when Veendam docked on 11 July, her 541 passengers had to unload their own baggage.

[105] In an attempt to avoid the wildcat strike, NASM diverted Diemerdijk and Edam to Erie Basin, Brooklyn, and moved Veendam to Pier 51 on the North River.

Partridge had been a student at Saint Martin's School of Art in London, studying to be a book illustrator, and was upset at having failed one of her subjects.

[121] NASM estimated that in her 30-year career the ship had carried nearly 250,000 passengers and covered 1,932,000 nautical miles (3,578,000 km),[122] including 196 transatlantic crossings.

[123] For her final transatlantic crossing, NASM reduced all first class berths to tourist fares, and she sailed as a one-class ship.