used as a troopship by the British Admiralty. She was renamed and entered service for her new owners on 30 May 1920. In 1922–1923 the Drottningholm was refurbished, re-engined and her superstructure enlarged. As a partial replacement, the 1902-built SS Noordam was chartered from Holland America Line as from 27 February 1923 until 18 December 1924. In April 1924 the company acquired , a small coastal steamer that became the first in a series of feeder ships used to transport passengers from ports around the Baltic Sea to Gothenburg. 1924–1939 In March 1923 RAB Sverige-Nordamerika placed an order for their first newbuilding, the first , with Armstrong Whitworth & Co in Newcastle upon Tyne. She was the first diesel-engined liner to be built for the transatlantic service. The Gripsholm was launched and christened on 26 November 1924, and delivered on 7 November 1925. On the same date her owners officially changed their name to Svenska Amerika Linien / Swedish American Line, and on 21 November the Gripsholm set out on her maiden voyage from Gothenburg to New York. Encouraged by the success of the Gripsholm, SAL placed an order for a ship of similar but larger design with the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg on 28 October 1926. In 1927 the company decided to enter the cruise market, offering various cruises during the northern hemisphere winter season. On 17 March 1928 the new was launched at Blohm & Voss. The Kungsholms interiors were designed with off-season cruising in mind, with her passenger capacity shrunk from 1344 on liner service to around 600 for cruising. She was also one of the first liners with interior decorations in art deco style, following the lead of the , built in 1927. The ship was delivered to SAL on 13 October 1928, and left on her maiden voyage on 24 November 1928. Coinciding with the delivery of the new ship, the first SS Stockholm was sold to Norwegian interests for conversion to a whale factory ship, SS Solglimt. With the Gripsholm and Kungsholm the SAL gained popularity with West European and American passengers, both in liner and cruise service. In May 1929 the United States and Canada imposed extensive restrictions on immigration. At some point after the delivery of the Kungsholm, SAL decided to abandon the traditional black hull colour and their entire fleet was repainted with white hulls. The Swedish American Line