A floating bookshop on the world’s oldest surviving liner

THE oldest passenger ship still plying the oceans, the M.V. Doulos, docked at Larnaca port yesterday for a 10-day visit to promote international understanding and worldwide education.

The Doulos, which is only two years younger than the Titanic, is the largest floating bookstore in the world, with over half a million books on board and over 7,000 different titles collected from 94 countries.

The Mayor of Larnaca, Andreas Moiseos, officially opened the floating bookstore yesterday after watching live entertainment provided by eight Korean dancers and 16 crewmembers in a presentation of traditional dress from different cultures.
“This is a great honour to open the bookstore,” Moiseos said. “It was a great pleasure to receive the Doulos in our Larnaca port, and although the Doulos is here for a short while, we realise the importance of how many nations are on the boat. The crew are volunteers and pioneers of service to humanity.”

Paul Beck, Doulos Public Relations Officer, proudly boasted that – unlike the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic which struck an iceberg in 1912 – the Doulos had survived for 89 years, which sent it straight into the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest surviving passenger vessel. Not wanting to jinx the grand vessel, Beck added: “Fortunately there are no icebergs near Cyprus.”

The Doulos now serves as a platform for an international youth programme, providing a two-year course in cross-cultural training, which involves how to serve people of different countries.

The Captain, Alex Feddes, explained that the Doulos, which in Greek means ‘servant’, not only offers international community programmes but has been involved in providing significant relief in areas of need and tragedy around the world.

“So just as the name of our ship suggests, we serve the nations of the world in a testimony of God’s love,” said Captain Feddes.

The Doulos will remain at Larnaca Port until December 7. The bookstore will be open to the public from Monday to Saturday, 10am-9pm, and on Sunday from 2-10pm. Books are priced on an average of £1 to £3 per book.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.