With an aging, small ship fleet by the late 1980s compared to the larger modern ships being built for competitors Carnival and Royal Caribbean, Norwegian attempted to catch up with an order of a new ship in 1987, the new Seaward, NCL's first new build since 1971. They would purchase the former Cunard Adventurer in 1977, refitting her with the trademark NCL funnels, and renamed Sunward II. The line would sell its original ship the Sunward in 1973, being too small and inadequate for the modern cruise market. This would be the Southward in 1971, and an intended identical sister the Seaward, that would never be delivered to the line, and would be completed for P&O Cruises instead. Norwegian would order two additional ships, that would be their first true cruise ships without any car carrying capacity. Norwegian was responsible for many of the cruise innovations that have now become standard throughout the industry. Later, this area was turned into cabins and a two-deck movie theater, later to be used as a casino. Like the original Sunward of 1966, they had the capability to carry automobiles through a well-concealed stern door. Norwegians's second and third ship, the Starward and Skyward, were the first newly built ships designed for the cruise line. Starward and sister Skyward were the first purpose-built ships for NCL Norwegian pioneered many firsts in the cruise industry, such as the first exclusive private island, Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas, the first combined air-sea program (marketed as "Cloud 9 Cruises"), which combined low-cost air fares with the cruise, Freestyle Cruising, which is a form of relaxed and informal cruising, and first shipline to develop new ports in the Caribbean, such as Ocho Rios in Jamaica. Arison soon left to form Carnival Cruise Lines, while Kloster acquired additional ships for Caribbean service, with the line renamed and marketed as Norwegian Caribbean Line. The Sunward was first managed under the Arison Shipping Company, and marketed as Ensign Cruises. The cruise line was founded in 1966 by Norwegian Knut Kloster and Israeli Ted Arison, with the 8,666-ton, 140 m long cruise ship/car ferry, Sunward, which in 1966 operated as a car ferry between Southampton UK and Gibraltar, for that one short season only. Norwegian Caribbean Line's first ship Sunward
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