Click on a Category below...
 


M/V DOULOS (1914/6818grt/IMO 5119105, ex-FRANCA C, ROMA, MEDINA. Renamed DOULOS PHOS) - the world's oldest ocean-going passenger ship at 94 years old, arrived today in Auckland, New Zealand at the end of a passage from Suva, Fiji. Registered in Valetta, Malta and operated by the German charity Gute Bucher fur Alle (Good Books For All) the M/V Doulos International Book Fair will be in Auckland for three weeks. Only two years younger than the ill-fated Titanic she was built in the United States for Mallory Line as the fruit carrier Medina and served on the Atlantic trade routes and later, during WWII, served with the US Coastguard. Following the war, she was acquired by a Panamanian company and converted to a passenger ship over a two year period, entering service again in 1950 as Roma. Two years later after her Panamanian owners went bankrupt, the then 38 year-old steamship was sold to Costa Line of Italy, renamed Franca C and re-engined as a motor vessel. After four years service on the Genoa-Caribbean route she was replaced by the larger Bianca C but remained in the Costa fleet until 1977 when she was sold to continue her already very lengthy career. In the 30-plus years since, she has visited some 100 countries and played host to an estimated 20 million visitors including various monarchs and Heads-of-State. While in Auckland, M/V Doulos, which boasts the largest library afloat and is crewed by around 320 multinational volunteers from 50 countries, will be open to the public, not only to those wanting to attend the book-fair, but also others wishing to take one of the special guided tours of the ship. Last here in 1989 M/V Doulos welcomed an estimated 30000 people aboard. She has recently undergone refitting by her owners and it was hoped she would survive long enough to celebrate her centenary at sea, a remarkable feat indeed. Sadly, stringent new SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) regulations due to come into force in 2010 mean she will not be able to sail on after October of that year as it would be financially prohibitive to upgrade the, by then, 96 year-old vessel to compliance level. 9 June 2008. Photo by SeapixOnline.com
 

The site contains over 10,000 maritime and shipping images, mainly from Auckland, Melbourne and Southampton.

: All images on this site are available for purchase :
- for personal use only, supplied as emailed .jpeg files - NZ$20 each. You can then create your own print.

For all commercial use (books, reports, online advertising, media releases etc) please enquire about specific prices.

 

Images are watermarked and are subject to international copyright laws, the copyright remaining at all times with SEAPIXONLINE.COM or the named photographer.
We provide links to other sites in good faith and are not responsible for the contents of the sites.
 

Search text
IMO/LR Number
Vessel name search

Search Tips





Copyright SeapixOnline 2025