Do end ships spawn on north or south
Solution 1:
You should be able to find end cities with or without ships in any direction, as long as it's on the outer islands in the End. It's mostly about luck whether you find a city early on or not and whether it has a ship as well.
From my experience it's best to look for End cities by finding one by chance and then following the Z-axis in any direction to find lots more and boost your chances of finding one with a ship.
As for the ship itself, the direction it faces is random.