Starward

MS Starward was a cruise ship built in 1968 at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremerhaven, West Germany.

After the success of Sunward, Knut Kloster, founder and owner of Norwegian Caribbean Line, asked naval architect Tage Wandborg to design an optimum cruise ship for the market.

[7] Built at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremerhaven, West Germany, Starward would also have a roll-on/roll-off freight capacity to transport vehicles.

During construction, however, the demand for cruises on Sunward greatly exceeded, which prompted Kloster to request Wandborg to change the design and exclude the freight capacity for cabins instead.

[8] Starward was the first Norwegian-flagged ship to meet American ‘Method 1’ fire-protection standards that specified the use of non-combustible materials throughout passenger and crew accommodations.

Orient Queen operated from Beirut for six months with seven-day cruises to Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, and Turkey.

Starward as Louis Aura in the Port of Piraeus
Starward as Aegean Queen in the port of Rhodes (city) on 18 September 2017