Pride of America

Pride of America is an American-flagged cruise ship that sails weekly inter-island itineraries around Hawaii for NCL America, a division of Norwegian Cruise Line. She began life as Project America 1, the first of two 70,000-ton passenger ships ordered from Litton-Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, under a federally subsidised plan to revive large U.S.-built passenger ships. Her keel was laid in October 2000, but her owner, American Classic Voyages, went bankrupt and the Maritime Administration stopped funding in October 2001, when the hull was about 40 percent complete. Norwegian Cruise Line bought the unfinished hull in August 2002 and had it towed to the Lloyd Werft yard in Bremerhaven, Germany, where she was lengthened from 850 to 920 feet and completed. A January 2004 storm sank her at her berth, delaying delivery to 2005. She was christened in New York in June 2005 and was the first new U.S.-flagged deep-water passenger ship in nearly fifty years.