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,[4] which in 1966 operated as a car ferry between Southampton UK and Gibraltar, for that one short season only. The Sunward was first managed under the Arison Shipping Company, and marketed as Ensign Cruises.[5] 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. And Royal Caribbean is one of the world's largest cruise lines, ranking second after Carnival. With 16 ships that can accommodate nearly 30,000 passengers, Royal Caribbean offers voyages to more than 150 destinations, including the ports of the Caribbean, Alaska, and Canada. The company's plans for the near future call for continued expansion with the addition of 7 new ships by the year 2002. This would increase the passenger capacity of the Royal Caribbean fleet to about 47,000, more than 55-percent larger than it is at present. As recently as 1996 Royal Caribbean was operating only 11 ships with a total capacity of about 19,000 passengers.