The MV Doulos is one of the oldest existing passenger ships. It also has the largest floating bookstore with a staff from 72 different countries. I had the chance to visit this ship when I was in Manila weeks back.

http://www.pbase.com/wanchtography/gallery/doulos

http://www.pbase.com/wanchtography/image/73214372/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/wanchtography/image/73215645/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/wanchtography/image/73214375/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/wanchtography/image/73214473/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/wanchtography/image/73214813/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/wanchtography/image/73215440/original.jpg

Think my friend has served on the crew of that boat. Its run by a Christian charity isn't it?

They will be coming to our province...

Doulos in Cebu, Philippines

When: Jan 26 - Feb 19, 2007

Where: Near Pier 1, Berth 28 and 29

Opening hours: Tues to Sat 10am - 10pm

Sun & Mon 2pm - 10pm

credits to: @kentaro - ssc cebu

GOSH, that DOULOS staff in that second picture is from my church!

From Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Doulos

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/63/Mv-doulos-at-southampton.jpg/800px-Mv-doulos-at-southampton.jpg

The MV Doulos is the world's oldest active ocean-faring passenger ship. She is now owned by the German charity Gute Bücher für Alle (Good Books for All), and is used as a floating bookshop. Over the years, she has been known as the SS Medina, the SS Roma, and the MV Franca C.

The Medina was built in 1914 by Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company for the Mallory Steamship Company of the United States. She was a freighter serving the Atlantic; during World War II she served with the United States Coast Guard.

The Panamanian company Naviera San Miguel SA acquired the Medina in 1948; they renamed the ship the Roma, and converted her into a passenger ship with cabins for 287 people, and dormitories for an additional 694 people.

In 1952 Naviera San Miguel resold the Roma to Linea Costa, an Italian company. At this time the SS Roma, a steamship, was converted into a motor vessel and renamed the MV Franca C. She carried passengers between Italy and Argentina. In 1959, the Franca C was adapted into a cruise liner, principally cruising the Mediterranean.

In 1977, Gute Bücher für Alle acquired the Franca C, and renamed her the Doulos. In her current role, she is manned by a volunteer crew and visits sea ports world-wide.

In 1991, during the last night of the Doulos' stop in the port of Zamboanga City, Philippines, it was bombed by the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf, killing six people, including two of her foreign crewmembers, and injuring 18.

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From the MV Doulos website:

http://www.mvdoulos.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=150&Itemid=198

History of a unique ship

http://www.mvdoulos.org/images/stories/aboutus/Dou07415.JPG

Constructed in 1914, MV Doulos is the world's oldest active ocean-going passenger ship. During her lengthy career, she has sailed under four distinct names: Medina, Roma, Franca C and Doulos. The ship has been utilised for four very different purposes: freighting goods, transporting emigrants, for cruises, and most recently in her present role as a vessel to bring knowledge, help and hope to the people of the world. During her lifetime, she has twice been extensively renovated and upgraded, and undergone two engine replacements. She has been registered in the United States of America, Panama, Italy and Malta.

Vessel Names
Medina: The name of a river in Texas, USA. The Neches, her sister ship, was also given the name of a river.

Roma: This name was selected because the ship carried pilgrims to Rome in 1950, the Roman Catholic Holy Year.

Franca C: Like all the ships of the Costa fleet, she was named after a member of the Costa family.

Doulos: A Greek name meaning bond servant or slave. Volunteers on board Doulos seek to serve God and the nations they visit.

http://www.mvdoulos.org/images/stories/aboutus/medina.jpg

Built in 1914 by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company for the Mallory Steamship Company (USA), she was launched on 22 August of the same year. Her sister ship, the Neches, was also completed in 1914. However, this vessel had a brief life history as she sank after a collision along the coast of Devon, England in 1918. The Medina had a speed of 14 knots and was described in the September 1914 International Marine Engineering magazine as one of the most modern and largest freight steamships operating on the Atlantic coast. The Medina was commissioned into service along the west coast of America during the Second World War by the United States Coast Guard.

http://www.mvdoulos.org/images/stories/aboutus/roma.jpg

In 1948, the Medina was acquired by the Panamanian company, Naviera San Miguel SA. The following year she was renamed the Roma and converted into a passenger ship with cabins for 287 people and dormitories for another 694 people. As 1950 was the Roman Catholic Holy Year, the ship was used to transport pilgrims to Rome and afterwards carried emigrants to Australia. This second role did not last for long and the vessel was soon put up for sale.

http://www.mvdoulos.org/images/stories/aboutus/FrancaC.jpg

In 1952, she was sold to Giacomo fu Andrea (Linea Costa) and renamed Franca C. Her original steam engine was replaced by a double acting diesel engine. At first she sailed between Italy and Argentina, carrying first, tourist and third class passengers with a capacity for over 900 people. In 1959 Franca C was remodelled into a first class luxury liner. Her cruises were mainly around the Mediterranean ports with occasional trips into the Black Sea. She later pioneered the cruise ship trade out of Miami. During this time one important change occurred (in 1970) when the vessel received a new engine, a set of Fiat diesels.

http://www.mvdoulos.org/images/stories/aboutus/earlydoulos.jpg

The Franca C was offered for sale in 1977. She was examined and on 4 November 1977, a contract of acquisition was signed and the ship was renamed Doulos. Before commencing her new role, some repairs were necessary. Alterations included the removal of the swimming pool and the construction of a covered book exhibition on the deck. The ship was taken to Bremen, Germany to be fitted for her new service. On 3 June 1978, she sailed from Bremen to initiate her new commission.

The shipyard that built the MV Doulos is also still in operation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_Newport_News

Northrop Grumman Newport News
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Grumman Newport News (NGNN), formerly called Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company (NNS&DD or simply NNS), is the largest privately owned shipyard in the United States. Northrop Grumman Newport News is one of two shipyards that produce and service all types of nuclear powered submarines (the other is the Electric Boat Corporation), and at present is the only shipyard that can build Nimitz-class supercarriers. NGNN is also home to the largest crane in the western hemisphere. NGNN is located in Newport News, Virginia, and often participates in projects with the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia, also located adjacent to Hampton Roads.

History
Industrialist Collis P. Huntington (1821-1900) led the efforts to complete the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad (C&O) from Richmond, Virginia to the Ohio River in the early 1870s. Although originally built for general commerce, the C&O soon was also used to transport bituminous coal from the previously isolated coalfields adjacent to the New River and the Kanawha River in West Virginia. In the 1880s, an extension of the C&O was built from Richmond down the Virginia Peninsula to reach a new coal pier on Hampton Roads in Warwick County near the small unincorporated community of Newport News. However, building the railroad and coal pier was only the first part of Huntington's dreams for Newport News.

In 1886, he built a shipyard to repair ships servicing this transportation hub. In 1891, Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company delivered its first ship, a tugboat named Dorothy. By 1897, NNS had built three warships for the U.S. Navy: Nashville, Wilmington, and Helena.

In 1906, the revolutionary HMS Dreadnought launched a great naval race worldwide. Between 1907 and 1923, Newport News built six of the U.S. Navy's total of 22 dreadnoughts -- Delaware, Texas, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Maryland, and West Virginia -- and all but the first would still be in active service in World War II.

In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt sent the Great White Fleet on its round-the-world voyage. Seven of its 16 battleships were built by NNS. In 1914, NNS built the SS Medina for the Mallory Steamship Company; as the MV Doulos she is now the world's oldest active ocean-faring passenger ship.

Between 1918 and 1920, NNS delivered 25 destroyers, and after World War I, NNS began building aircraft carriers. Ranger was delivered in 1934, and NNS went on to build Yorktown and Enterprise.

By 1940, the Navy had ordered seven more aircraft carriers and four cruisers. Still, the company swiftly filled requests for "Liberty ships" that were needed during the war. It founded North Carolina Shipbuilding Company, an emergency yard on the banks of the Cape Fear River and launched its first Liberty ship before the end of 1941, building 243 ships in all, including 186 Libertys. For its contributions during the war, the Navy awarded the company its "E" pennant for excellence in ship construction.

In the post-war years, NNS built the famous passenger liner SS United States, which set a transatlantic speed record that still stands today. In 1954, NNS, together with Westinghouse and the Navy, developed and built a prototype nuclear reactor for a carrier propulsion system. NNS designed the Enterprise in 1960. In 1959 NNS launched its first nuclear-powered submarine, Shark as well as the ballistic missile submarine Robert E. Lee.

In the 1970s, NNS launched two of the largest tankers ever built in the western hemisphere and also constructed three liquefied natural gas carriers -- at over 390,000 deadweight tons, the largest ever built in the United States. In the 1980s, NNS produced a variety of Navy products, including Nimitz-class nuclear aircraft carriers and Los Angeles-class nuclear attack submarines. The original ship in its class, the USS Nimitz was already well under construction by the early '70's, being built in a drydock at 42nd Street in Downtown Newport News, in full view of most of the downtown area.

Merger with Northrop Grumman
On November 7, 2001, NNS signed a merger agreement with industrial conglomerate Northrop Grumman. The combination created a $4 billion shipyard now called Northrop Grumman Newport News. The shipyard is a major employer not only for the lower Virginia Peninsula, but portions of Hampton Roads south of the James River and the harbor, portions of the Middle Peninsula region, and even some northeastern counties of North Carolina.

Ships built
Ships built at the Newport News yard include:

Tugboat Dorothy, the shipyard's first vessel delivered, in 1891
SS Georgia a crude oil tanker built in 1908
USS Virginia, lead battleship of its class, launched in 1904
Ocean liner SS Medina for the Mallory Steamship Company in 1914, currently the oldest serving passenger ship in the world
Wickes class destroyers (Lamberton; Radford; Montgomery; Breese; Gamble; Ramsay) for the Navy in 1918
USS Ranger, the first purpose-built aircraft carrier of the United States Navy, launched in 1933
Yorktown class aircraft carriers:
USS Yorktown, launched in 1936
USS Enterprise, launched in 1936
USS Hornet, launched in 1940
Essex class aircraft carriers:
USS Essex, launched in 1942
USS Yorktown, launched in 1943
USS Intrepid, launched in 1943
USS Hornet, launched in 1943
USS Franklin, launched in 1943
USS Ticonderoga, launched in 1944
USS Randolph, launched in 1944
USS Bennington, launched in 1944
USS Boxer, launched in 1944
USS Leyte, launched in 1945
Liberty ship transports for the Allies during World War II
Midway class aircraft carriers:
USS Midway, launched in 1945
USS Coral Sea, launched in 1946
Ocean liner SS United States, holder of a transatlantic speed record
Forrestal class aircraft carriers:
USS Forrestal, launched in 1954
USS Ranger, launched in 1956
Submarine USS Shark in 1959, the yard's first nuclear-powered submarine
Ballistic missile submarine Robert E. Lee, launched in 1959
USS Enterprise, launched in 1960, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier
USS America, launched in 1964
USS John F. Kennedy, launched in 1967
All ten Nimitz class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers:
USS Nimitz, launched in 1972
USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, launched in 1975
USS Carl Vinson, launched in 1980
USS Theodore Roosevelt, launched in 1984
USS Abraham Lincoln, launched in 1988
USS George Washington, launched in 1990
USS John C. Stennis, launched in 1993
USS Harry S. Truman, launched in 1996
USS Ronald Reagan, launched in 2001
USS George H. W. Bush
Los Angeles class nuclear-powered submarines
Virginia class nuclear-powered submarines

Creed
"We shall build good ships here. At a profit - if we can. At a loss - if we must. But always good ships".
Collis Potter Huntington