In 1914, two years after the Titanic embarked on its ill-fated maiden voyage, the steam-powered SS Medina rolled off the shipyard at Newport News, Virginia.
The vessel has had many lives — and many names — since, in a career that eventually made it the oldest active passenger ship on the oceans. But the 111-year-old boat’s latest assignment is, perhaps, the unlikeliest of them all.
Originally used to transport onions and other goods, the Medina was conscripted to assist America’s World War II efforts. It was then converted into a passenger ship, the SS Roma, and fitted with a diesel engine before serving as a cruise liner under the name MS Franca C. In 1977, it was acquired by a Christian organization and renamed MV Doulos, a missionary ship and floating library.
Over the next three decades, the vessel sailed over 360,000 nautical miles and docked in over 100 countries. It was once even attacked with grenades by Muslim separatists in the Philippines in a 1991 terrorist incident that left two evangelists dead.
Now, after more than a century at sea, the ship has come to rest — on dry land — in Bintan, a tropical Indonesian island known for all-inclusive beach resorts. Singaporean businessman Eric Saw, the historic vessel’s latest owner (or current “steward,” as he prefers to be known), has spent the last 15 years and around 23 million Singapore dollars ($18 million) of his own money transforming it into a luxury hotel.
