L I F E S T Y L E Focus
Saturday July 22, 2006
[Also stolen and published on Ombar's Bridgebuilder
http://bridgebuilder.myfreeforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=475&start=0 ]
Spreading knowledge
By Liz Price
The MV Doulos berthed at the Star Cruise Terminal in Port Klang.
Can you imagine a bookshop that is 92 years old and has been travelling around the world for 30 years. Housed in the world’s oldest seagoing passenger ship, the MV Doulos, built in 1914, is just two years younger than the Titanic. She is recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest floating bookshop.
The Doulos is registered in Malta, and has been sailing around the world since 1977. Having visited more than 100 countries, she spends about a month in each port, and welcomes visitors on board.
The books on sale onboard the MV Doulos.
The Doulos is now back at Port Klang until July 31. Being an avid reader, and having seen that the ship carries more than 6,000 titles in the shop, I had to go and see this floating antique. From the outside, the ship looks like any other old passenger ship, although it’s much smaller than today’s cruise liners.
Simon Chen has been with the ship for seven years now.
We walked up the gangplank and were welcomed by a crew member. The Doulos has about 350 crew of 48 nationalities. There are five Malaysians aboard. One of them, Simon Chen, has been a crew member for seven years. The crew are all volunteers. In fact they have to pay all their own expenses, so it’s a real labour of love.
The bookshop was packed with books on nature, gardening, cookery, sports, some fiction and religion. There was a large selection of children books, as well as cassettes and CDs. The books were all priced in “units” and there were conversion charts so you could see the price in ringgit. They were not particularly cheap, however.
The Doulos, which means “servant” in Greek, has undergone several makeovers and name changes. The crew members serve as seamen, officers, doctors, welders, teachers, cooks and secretaries.
Those without specialised skills serve in any way they can. The ship’s mission is to bring “knowledge, help and hope” to the nations. Carrying so many books, Doulos aims to promote the reading habit.
She is owned by Good Books for All (GBA), a non-profit organisation that aims to promote good education and international understanding. Whilst in Malaysia, the visit was hosted by the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF) Malaysia.
As I was curious to see more of the ship, I asked for a tour. Rozemarin, a young Dutch girl, was my guide. Her brother had flown especially to Malaysia to visit her. They had not seen each other during the 18 months that Rozemarin had been on the ship.
There are two intakes of new crew each year, in January and September. Some are able to raise sponsorship, others raise funds in their home country before they sign up.
Several families are on board, and each family has its own cabin. The unmarried crew share cabins, four people to each cabin. The ship is like a floating town, as there is a clinic, a barber, laundry, small shop and a school for the children.
The ship’s kitchen.
The bakery bakes fresh bread each day. Fresh food such as fruit and vegetables are bought in every port of call, but the ship carries a large supply of frozen food.
The meals are mainly Western. However, there is a small pantry where people can cook simple dishes for themselves. I was amused to see two Korean girls in there preparing instant noodles.
Working on the ship is hardly a pleasure cruise, as the staff work a five-day week to keep the ship running. On the sixth day, they do community work in every port. For instance, they may help build houses, or perhaps a school or orphanage. The crew helped in relief efforts in Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami. This fulfills the objective of bringing knowledge and help to the locals.
The crew are all well-trained in safety procedures. They have three weeks of emergency training before they join. There are also regular drills aboard and they even have firemen to man the fire station.
Doulos crew working in the laundrette. — Pictures by LIZ PRICE & S.S. KANESAN
As the ship is constantly sailing around the world, it is serviced in each port. It may go into one dry dock each year. So far, the Doulos has visited 102 countries and 545 ports. When the book fair ends on July 31 in Port Klang, the next port of call will be Pasir Gudang, Johor from Aug 4 to Aug 15 and then Kuantan from Aug 18 to Aug 27.
The ship is open to the public from 10am to 10pm, Tuesday to Saturday, and from 2pm to 10pm on Sunday and Monday.
Entrance is free, but the port charge is RM1 per vehicle. W
No comments:
Post a Comment