and in 1930 the UK Government investigated its affairs. In 1931 RMSP's chairman, Lord Kylsant, was tried in the Royal Mail Case for misrepresenting the state of the company and was jailed. In 1932 the group was reconstituted as a new company, Royal Mail Lines under a new chairman. In 1934 Lamport and Holt was restructured. The LB&RP Steam Navigation Co took over all the assets of Lamport and Holt, and the new company was called Lamport and Holt Line Ltd. In 1930 Lamport and Holt owned 41 ships. As the slump deepened the company laid up many of its cargo ships as well as its passenger liners. Between 1930 and 1935 Lamport and Holt sold almost half of its fleet. In 1932 the liners Vandyck and Voltaire returned to service as cruise ships. This proved successful, so the pair were refitted for their new purpose and their hulls were repainted in white. From then until 1939 they offered holiday cruises to the Mediterranean, West Africa, islands in the Atlantic, the Caribbean, Norway and the Baltic. Slowly global trade recovered until Lamport and Holt felt able to add new cargo ships. In 1937 Harland and Wolff completed the motor ship Delius. It was Lamport and Holt's first new ship since Voltaire in 1923: a gap of 14 years. Delius was joined by her sisters Delane and Devis in 1938. Each of these "D-class" ships had berths for 12 passengers. They were of strikingly modern appearance, with clean lines and a single large funnel amidships partly incorporated into the superstructure. In 1940 Harland and Wolff delivered two more D-class ships: Debrett and Defoe. Second World War When the Second World War began in September 1939 Lamport and Holt had a fleet of 16 steamships and five motorships with a combined tonnage of . By the time Japan capitulated in 1945 the company had lost 14 of its fleet, including its last two V-class liners. After the Sudetenland crisis of September 1938 and German occupation of Bohemia and Moravia in March 1939 the UK increased its preparations for war. Early in the 1939 season Vandyck and Voltaire ceased holiday cruising and were converted into troopships. Voltaire sailed for Bombay in June 1939 and docked in Southampton on 28 August. In October Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson in Wallsend started to convert her into an armed merchant cruiser. In January 1940 she was