MS ''Southward'' was a

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "s ...

owned by

Norwegian Cruise Line Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), also known in short as Norwegian, is an American cruise line founded in 1966, incorporated in Bermuda and headquartered in Miami. It is the fourth-largest cruise line in the world by passengers, controlling about 8.6 ...

, operated between 1971 and 1994, and later on to other cruise liners until she ended operation in 2013.

History

''Southward'' was NCL's fourth cruise ship, the others being ''Sunward'' (1966), ''Starward'' (1968), and ''Skyward'' (1969). Initially, she was operated on Caribbean cruises out of

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

. In 1987, however, she was dispatched to the west coast of the United States to begin operating out of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

( San Pedro) on three and four-night cruises to Catalina Island,

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

and Ensenada, BC, Mexico. As a result of this move, Norwegian Caribbean Line changed its name to Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) in late 1987. The ''Southward'' was featured on episodes 315 and 316 of ''

Baywatch ''Baywatch'' is an American action drama television series about lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, and Hawaii, starring David Hasselhoff. It was created by Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz, and Gregory J. Bonann, ...

'', which originally aired on January 25, 1993 and February 1, 1993 respectively. By 1994, she was sold off to Sun Cruises, a cruise division of the UK-based travel company

Airtours MyTravel Group plc was a British, global travel group headquartered in Rochdale, England. It was founded in 1972 as Airtours Group. The group included two in-house airlines, MyTravel Airways UK and MyTravel Airways Scandinavia, and various t ...

, and renamed ''Seawing''. She cruised for seven nights through the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

during the spring/summer season and the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

in the winter season. Later on, ''Seawing'' ran fourteen, sixteen, and thirty-night cruises from 2002 and 2003. From 2004, she joined the

Louis Cruise Lines Celestyal Cruises (formed in 2014) is a succession to Louis Cruises and Louis Cruise Lines. The Cruise line was a subsidiary of Louis plc (Founded in 1935 as the first travel agency in Cyprus) until November 2021 when Searchlight Capital Partners ...

fleet, under the name of ''Perla''. In 2005, she operated cruises out of

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; el, Πειραιάς ; grc, Πειραιεύς ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens' city centre, along the east coast of the Saronic ...

to the

Greek Islands Greece has many islands, with estimates ranging from somewhere around 1,200 to 6,000, depending on the minimum size to take into account. The number of inhabited islands is variously cited as between 166 and 227. The largest Greek island by a ...

and

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, after a winter in the Far East. In May 2008, she was chartered to Golden Sun Cruises (a Greece-based company) and renamed ''The Aegean Pearl'', operating between three and four night cruises from

. After the charter ended with Golden Sun Cruises in 2009, she returned to Louis Cruises with her name remaining unchanged. In 2010, she was transferred to Rio Cruises and renamed ''Rio'', and again in 2012, was sold off to Venus Cruise Lines and renamed ''Venus''. She was scrapped in 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Southward Ocean liners Ships built in Italy Ships of Norwegian Cruise Line Passenger ships of Norway 1971 ships