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

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

[6] On 18 November she hosted a luncheon for 300 guests, addressed by speakers including the Chargé d'affaires form the Embassy of the Netherlands, Washington, D.C.[7] On an eastbound voyage on 3 March 1926, Volendam rescued the captain and five crew members of a schooner that had been adrift for 77 days, without sails, and sinking.

A month before she was due to sail, NASM shortened the cruise to nine days, omitting a call at Kingston, Jamaica, and reduced the fares accordingly.

[17] The voyage had been planned to take 54 days, cover 13,000 nautical miles (24,000 km), and visit 12 countries, including Norway to see some of its fjords.

[25] The next left Hoboken on 23 February, and included Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Martinique, Barbados, Trinidad, Caripito, Ciudad Bolívar, and Curaçao.

Passengers were offered berths on Rotterdam, which was due to leave Hoboken on 16 March on a cruise to St Thomas, Port-au-Prince, Curaçao and La Guaira.

[30] On 29 September 1935, Rotterdam was cruising off Jamaica at the time of the 1935 Cuba hurricane when she ran aground on Morant Cays.

[37] The Society of Beaux-Arts chartered Volendam for a charity fund-raising cruise to Nassau for the Architects Emergency Relief Fund.

[43] She called at Nassau, and was en route to Bermuda, when on 9 May she struck a submerged object, which damaged one of her propellers and forced her to reduce speed.

Passengers were offered the options of either a 50 per cent refund, or an eight-day cruise aboard Rotterdam, which would leave Hoboken on 3 June.

[44] In May 1939, NASM bought Red Star Line, which the German government had forced Arnold Bernstein to sell.

Also aboard were the motor racer Kaye Don and his wife, the Dutch artist and cartoonist Louis Raemaekers, and a Lithuanian woman who was described as stateless because the USSR had occupied the Baltic States since 15 June.

The Master, Captain Arie Karlsdorp, had been wounded by machine gun fire, and had then spent five weeks in an English hospital.

[61] The official account is that the children boarded the lifeboats in good spirits, singing songs such as Roll Out The Barrel.

[62] However, one survivor, then nine years old, recalled "I remember vividly running through the corridors, watching the watertight doors begin to close.

[59][65] A few weeks later, Baron's body was washed up on the Inner Hebridean islet of Gunna, and was buried in Kirkapol parish churchyard on Tiree.

On 5 October, the Furness, Withy refrigerated cargo liner Northern Prince, embarked 100 passengers in Liverpool, including 24 children.

He went by ship from England to Aruba, where he joined the Grace Line steamship Santa Rosa, which reached New York on 4 April 1941.

[68] On 4 January 1941 the Dutch government-in-exile announced that Captain Karlsdorp, who had been a passenger aboard Volendam, would be awarded the Bronze Cross for his part in the rescue.

She then went to Milford Haven, where she and the Canadian Pacific liner Montcalm formed Convoy CT 9 to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

There she and the troop ships Bergensfjord and Nea Hellas, escorted by the cruiser HMS Colombo, formed Convoy WS 16A, which dispersed off Aden on 16 April.

Volendam was in Suez 10–13 April, and then returned via Cape Town, Freetown and Convoy SL 112 to Liverpool.

She then called at Diego-Suárez on 18–19 September, where Operation Stream Line Jane had been launched to complete the Allied invasion of Vichy French Madagascar.

She called at Algiers and Philippeville, then returned with Convoy MKF 20 to the Clyde, where she was in port from 11 August until 10 September.

She continued to operate between Algeria, southern France, and Naples until 17 October, when she left Algiers carrying 2,673 passengers and joined Convoy MKF 35 to Liverpool.

[50] On 23 February 1946, Volendam left Port Said carrying British service personnel: mostly ATS, WAAF and married families.

[73] On 11 September, when Volendam was 200 nautical miles (370 km) off the East Coast of the United States, a student from Occidental College, Los Angeles fell into the sea from a lifeboat where he had been posing for photographs.

[70] A fortnight later NASM announced that she would make six transatlantic round trips, at monthly intervals, from March to September 1951.

[79] Sources disagree as to whether the sale was at the beginning of November 1951[70] or on 3 February 1952,[3] and whether her voyage to the breakers' yard in 1952 was on 17 March[79] or 6 June.