During a January 2004 storm in Germany, the partially finished ship sank up to its third deck in 35

The ship, whose hull is decorated with a bald eagle set off by red stripes, was left unfinished in a bankruptcy, received a $185 million taxpayer subsidy and partially sank four months london travel planner before completion at a German shipyard.
The 2,100-passenger Pride of America comes from a congressional "Project America" program, supported by former Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawai'i, and dates back to at least 1999. The program was designed to revitalize london travel planner the U.S.-flag oceangoing cruise fleet but never completed a cruise vessel.
NCL, which once operated three ships in the islands, london travel planner announced Feb. 11 that the Pride of Aloha will end its Hawai'i cruises in May, making the Pride of America the only U.S.-flagged ship offering interisland cruises.
Veitch said the company, which has been losing money on the Hawai'i cruises, chose to leave the Pride of America, which has been operating 2 1/2 years, in Hawai'i rather than the other ships because it has been profitable.
"Sentimentally, london travel planner we've always looked at it as the first ship in the Project America that was intended to bring U.S.-flagged shipping back, so it was a nice coincidence that it was the one that was making the money," Veitch said.
Originally, Project America was to build two cruise ships with an option for a third for American Classic Voyages at Ingalls shipyard in Mississippi. london travel planner American Classic Voyages was supposed to use the U.S.-flagged ships for Hawaiian cruises.
The Maritime Administration paid out $187.3 million in loan guarantees for the vessels and received about $2 million from selling the hull and other parts to NCL Corp. in 2002. The company took the pieces to a German shipyard, which completed london travel planner the Pride of America and a second london travel planner ship, originally known as the Pride of Hawaii.
But the benefits to Hawai'i from the ships have been substantial, according to state economist Pearl Imada Iboshi, who estimated london travel planner that the Pride of Aloha's overall london travel planner economic london travel planner impact was up to $422.5 million a year and as many as 4,000 jobs. Iboshi also estimated the Pride of Hawaii's overall london travel planner impact london travel planner as up to $542 million a year and as many as 5,000 jobs.
Despite criticisms of the loan guarantee program, some say it was at least partially successful because it gave work to a U.S. shipyard, and the Pride of America and the other ship built still provide U.S. maritime jobs.
"Even though the vessels were not completed in a U.S. yard, the program did fulfill its goals," said U.S. Maritime Administrator Sean T. Connaughton. "You did have the vessels generating economic activity in the U.S. as well as providing the employment for U.S. mariners, and obviously the potential is there for national security uses."
While President Bush, and President Clinton before him, tried to eliminate the loan guarantee program, Congress kept it alive. For example, the Maritime Administration guaranteed the $140 million loan to build two ferries for Hawaii london travel planner Superferry Inc.
Veitch also said the federal government london travel planner has been paid back for its Project America loan guarantee through the company's payroll taxes and the economic benefits from the NCL America operation in Hawai'i over the past four years.
Veitch said that after buying the hull and equipment in 2002, the company sought permission to finish the vessels in Germany but have them U.S. flagged, a condition of operating Hawaiian interisland cruises.
During a January 2004 storm in Germany, the partially finished london travel planner ship sank up to its third deck in 35 feet of water � the depth of the harbor. "It was one of the Maalox moments when you get the phone call," Veitch said. "Had it been in deep water, it would have sunk up to the funnel. That was the saving grace, I guess."
"The ship was heavily booked and looked like it was going to be commercially successful from the word go, had it not sunk," he said. Veitch said the ship's entry into the Hawai'i market was delayed for a year but now is providing "a really excellent product."