HMY Alexandra

When Alexandra in a display of A. & J. Inglis, 1915

• Alexandra

The passenger ship Prins Olav was built in 1907 by the shipyard A. & J. Inglis, Glasgow, Scotland, as royal British yacht Alexandra in 1908 and ran from the stack. The three steam turbines and three screws driven yacht was baptized by the sister of King Edward VII, Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll. The ship was mainly used to transport the King to his favorite resort Biarritz and Mediterranean resorts and Germany. It was manned by the Royal Navy and served during the First World War as a hospital ship.

In 1925 she was sold to the Norwegian shipping company Det Nordenfjeldske Dampskibsselskab ( NFDS ) in Nidaros and renamed Prins Olav. She served there as a Norwegian luxury cruise ship. In 1936 it was completely rebuilt, and was from 1937 the flagship of the Norwegian Hurtigruten fleet. On 9 June 1940, the Prins Olav was sunk while trying to escape from occupied Norway from Germany by German aircraft near Røst in Lofoten. One person died, the others were rescued by the British destroyer Arrow.