Trondheim for £25,000. Nordenfjeldske Dampskibsselskab had suffered heavy losses to German U-boats during the First World War, and needed to replenish and expand its fleet. Alexandra was renamed Prins Olav, after Queen Alexandra's Norwegian grandson. In Norwegian service she was assigned the code letters LCVM. Cruise ship The first years in Norway she was used as a luxury cruise ship. After a minor refurbishing in Trondheim, Prins Olav left for Bergen in Western Norway on 3 July 1925. Her maiden cruise voyage going from Bergen to the North Cape in Northern Norway began on 5 July 1925. Following the conclusion of the 1925 summer season, Prins Olav was modified at the shipyard Fredrikstad Mekaniske Verksted in Fredrikstad from December 1925. The rebuild created accommodation for 100 passengers, while retaining the original royal quarters on the ship unaltered. Prins Olav served as an effective public relations tool for Nordenfjeldske. The ship was especially popular with foreign tourists, and together with the new-built steamer Dronning Maud she gave the company a dominating position in the tourist industry in Northern Norway. Between 1926 and 1930 Prins Olav sailed on summer cruises on the Norwegian coast. In winter time, Prins Olav was mothballed, with the exception of 1928, when winter cruises in the Mediterranean were carried out, something which was repeated in 1935. In the seasons of 1930 to 1935 she cruised between Edinburgh in Scotland and the North Cape. Hurtigruten 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. As part of the 1936 Hurtigruten contract with the Norwegian government, Nordenfjeldske Dampskibsselskab had obligated itself to put a new ship into the service. Rather than building a new ship, Nordenfjeldske decided to rebuild Prins Olav for the Hurtigruten cargo/passenger service on the coast of Norway. The rebuild, which lasted until 27 May 1937, changed her tonnage to 2,147 gross register tons (1,247 net register tons). In her new configuration she had the capacity to carry 450 passengers, with 95 cabins in the First Class section and 145 cabins in the Third Class section. Much effort was put into providing good standards for the Third Class section. Her turbines were replaced with a 3,500 ihp four-cylinder compound engine, the largest steam engine built in Norway up to that point in time. The engine had been manufactured