Pride of America

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Pride of America
Status:	In service
Entered Service:	2005
Tonnage:	81,000 gross tons
Length:	920.6 feet
Beam:	105.6 feet
Draft:	26 feet
Decks:	15
Complement:	2,146 passengers, 900 crew
Registry:	United States

Pride of America is a cruise ship and a member of the Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) fleet. Inaugurated during the 2005-2006 cruise season, she is the first U.S. flagged cruise ship in close to 50 years ^[1]. Pride of America was designed to pay homage to the spirit and many wonderful regions of the United States, from the patriotic artwork on the hull to the American themed public spaces.

The Pride of America in port.

For much of its early (pre-commissioning) history, Pride of America was known as "Project America 1"; the first of a pair of 70,000-ton cruise ships to be built at the Litton-Ingalls shipyard in Mississippi with heavy federal subsidies. Project America was intended as a means of improving the competitiveness of American shipyards in performing commercial (non-military) construction, as well as create the first American-registered passenger ships of any real size in decades. The Project America program collapsed in 2001, when American Classic Voyages Inc., the company that was to operate the ships under its United States Lines division, filed for bankruptcy.

Norwegian Cruise Line Ltd. acquired the partially-finished ship, and had her towed to Germany for completion as "Pride of America" for their newly-launched NCL America division. In the process, the ship was lengthened considerably, from 850 ft. to 920, growing from 72,000 gross tons to more than 80,000. Under NCL America, the ship was initially slated for completion in 2004, but the delivery date was pushed back to 2005 after a major storm hit the shipyard and caused considerable damage to the vessel, partially sinking her at its berth. A special exemption on the part of the US Government allowed the largely foreign-built ship to attain US registry.