An estimated 4,000 locals have paid a visit to the ship Logos Hope, the world’s largest floating book fair, since it sailed into Grand Harbour on 28 September, with the most popular books among Maltese being, perhaps rather surprisingly

, word search puzzles, text books and children’s books.

One third of revenue generated from the sale of books onboard the ship, which is now in its 39th year of a voyage across the world “to bring knowledge, help and hope”, goes toward charitable purposes, with the remainder funding the ship’s operational and project costs.

Up close and personal with some of the ship’s volunteers, Abigail Yoon, from South Korea, smiles as she serves customers, telling The Malta Independent that although she has been a volunteer for one year, she has no immediate plans to return back to her homeland, and is looking forward to spending another year helping out onboard the Logos Hope.

“The most exciting thing about it all is that, despite lending a helping hand, volunteers get to experience several different cultures from all around the world,” she remarks chirpily, commenting that a recent voyage by the Logos Hope to the Caribbean was an experience she will never forget.

Jessie Laplue, media relations officer for the ship, told this newspaper that sales of books are going well, “and although it is too early to say, the chances are that the ship could make a return visit to the island within the next few years”.

She adds that most of the voyages the Logos Hope embarks on are to countries with which it has had “longstanding relationships and who regularly invite the ship for a return visit”.

Ms Laplue is part of the ship’s 400 strong crew encompassing 51 nationalities, all of whom are unpaid volunteers, who have shifts of eight hours a day five days a week, and two days off in which most volunteers liaise with some of the community centres in cities close to its current port of call.

“A while ago, during a stop in Africa, which lasted three months, most volunteers, during their time off, took it upon themselves to help local employees in building a medical hospital in the outskirts of a poverty stricken town.

“Others who are not that enthusiastic about construction work pay a visit to rehabilitation centres and offer their support and services to drug and drink addicts.

“It has been a huge privilege, albeit at the same time a very challenging experience, to form part of the team of volunteers onboard the Logos Hope ship,” commented Ms Laplue.

Engineer Paul Guinness, from England, had been a youth worker in London for three years, when he opted to take a short break, which did not last long, after he was “enticed by everything which Logos Hope has to offer”.

He is one of those who regularly work behind the scenes to ensure that most of the ship’s operations “are ticking in the right order” and is part of the many onboard who serve in their professional capacity such as engineers, teachers, nurses and cooks.

Mr Guinness explains that becoming environmentally friendly is one of the ship’s main short-term priorities, and the senior management of the ship’s staff are looking at reducing, by as much as 40 per cent, the 4,500 litres of fuel used to run the ship every day.

“The engineering staff is studying the feasibility of doing this by switching to heavy fuel oil,” he commented.

He adds that only yesterday he came back from a meeting with representatives of the local Transport Authority to find an alternative for the releasing of the ship’s sewage water, which albeit is filtered and cleaned, into the Maltese seas as it does now.

The next port of call for the ship, after leaving Malta on 17 October, will be in Libya, and approximately 10 containers full of books will arrive in Malta very soon to supply the ship with added books ahead of its next voyage.