110 -year -old ship that passed 2 wars becomes a luxury hotel

In 1948, it was sold to the Italian company Genaviter and renamed SS Rome. The vessel was adapted as a passenger ship, bringing migrants and pilgrims to Rome.

A few years later, he underwent another major transformation. Under the Costa Lines flag, he received a diesel engine in place of the steam engine, earned a new name, MS Franca C, and entered history as the first 100% first class cruise ship in the world. In 1977, it was purchased by the Missionary Organization Operation Mobilization and became the MV Doulos. Reformed, it became the largest floating library on the planet.

For 33 years he sailed the equivalent of 16 laps around the world and received more than 25 million visitors on board. It was during this time that he enchanted Eric Saw, who took his children to meet the ship whenever he began in Singapore. “I never imagined that one day I would own this ship, much less that would turn it into a hotel,” the businessman told Business Insider.

Farming and challenge of turning it into a hotel

Saw entered auction and won with an offer of $ 1.1 million. This was in 2010, when Doulos was already carrying a historical title: it was the oldest ocean passenger ship in operation in the world, according to the Guinness World Records. Even so, it was about to get scrap.