Travellers' Checks | Doulos Phos, The Ship Hotel, drops anchor in Indonesia – complete with swimming pool, spa and museum
- Previously known as the MV Doulos, the floating bookshop was popular in Hong Kong for its cheap, Christian-themed books
The Floating Hotel Company was registered in Hong Kong in the summer of 1890. Its only property, the Hotel Marina, was a converted sailing ship, which was advertised in the local papers as a first-class hotel offering “exceptional advantages for Healthfulness and Refreshing breezes; the avoidance of street noises, and unwholesome odours, &c”. There were 24 bedrooms, each with a private veranda and bathroom, with facilities including a billiard room and a card room.
As one local reviewer noted, “The promenade deck has an area of 8,000 [square] feet and of course gets the breeze from whatever quarter it may be blowing. There are electric bells fitted throughout the ship, the cuisine is excellent, and every arrangement for the comfort of guests that could be expected in a first class hotel is provided.”
Opened in July 1890, she lay at anchor off the southern tip of Kowloon until mid-September, and thereafter just off Wan Chai, near “the Blue Buildings”. In early October, it was reported that she had “dragged her anchors and nearly dropped across the bows of the Oceanic, much to the uneasiness of the few residents”. Within two weeks the Hotel Marina disembarked her last guests and closed for business, largely due, it seems, to mismanagement and insufficient funds to pay creditors.
About a century later, another repurposed ship, the MV Doulos, began making regular visits to Victoria Harbour, usually dropping anchor at Ocean Terminal. As a floating bookshop, she was a popular visitor for many years with Hongkongers of all ages looking for cheap, mostly Christian-themed books. Later renamed the Doulos Phos and retired in 2009, she was once said to have been the world’s oldest active ocean-going passenger ship, having launched in August 1914 as the SS Medina.
In June, Doulos Phos, The Ship Hotel will open at the Bandar Bentan Telani Ferry Terminal, on Bintan Island, Indonesia, as part of the Bintan Resorts development. With 104 cabins and land facilities including a swimming pool, a spa and a maritime museum, it is likely to be more successful than the long-forgotten Hotel Marina, a luxury boutique hotel that was perhaps too far ahead of its time.
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