World’s oldest ocean liner once left rusting & abandoned now turned into lavish £13million beachfront hotel

SAVED from scavenging shipbreakers, the world’s oldest ocean liner is now a lavish multi-million beachfront hotel.

Docked on dry-land on artificial island shaped like an anchor, Doulos Phos has undergone a remarkable transformation.

After a century at sea and over 360,000 nautical miles sailed, she has gone from a rusty retired seafarer to the jewel of a five-star luxury resort.

Singaporean businessman Eric Saw has spent 15 years and £13m to transform the historic vessel into a top tourist destination on the tropical Indonesian island of Bintan.

The 74-year-old entrepreneur bought the ship in 2010, saving it from a bleak future of scrap metal, he told CNN.

Deemed unseaworthy, Eric had the artificial peninsula constructed to home the 111-year-old ship where it was gutted and transformed.

“All her cabins were very small, very spartan,” Eric said.

“And many of the portholes were just small little holes, placed up high because they didn’t want the water coming in. One cabin typically had two double bunks — so four people sharing one cabin.”

Now, she boasts 93 beautifully retrofitted cabins for tourists looking for a more unique stay.

The vessel, built in 1914, has had a chequered past- from onion transport ship, to floating Christian missionary and library.

She was even involved in a terrorism incident where it was attacked by grenades, leaving two dead.

Her former owner was ready to turn her into scrap metal, before Eric submitted the winning bid of £800,000.

Her journey to luxury hotel was long and arduous- her engines had been decommissions already so she had to be towed over 30miles to her final resting place.

It took seven “nail-biting” weeks to get her onto her artificial island, sometimes moving less than 3ft per day.

“As the process dragged on and on, I guess I was discouraged. But I always clung on to the hope that we must fulfil the vision that has been put in our hearts,” Eric said.

The mammoth task was not just a passion project for Eric, who admitted he could have bought a Ferrari and Lamborghini and sailed the world every year with his family if he hadn’t bought the rusty ship.

He only takes a token $1 annual salary and gives the hotel’s operational profits to Christian charitable causes.

He doesn’t care if he ever recoups his £13million investment.

“She is nothing but a mass of steel,” he said.

“It is what we do with her that gives meaning.”