SEE & DO
MV Chauncy Maples
Docked inauspiciously in Monkey Bay Harbour, where it currently serves as a bar, the MV Chauncy Maples is the oldest ship in Africa, built in Scotalnd by Alley & McLean for the UMCA in 1899, then shipped in 3,480 pieces to Quelimane on the coast present day Mozambique. From Quelimane, the boat’s 11-ton boiler was transported inland intact on a wheeled carriage hauled by some 450 Ngoni porters, an exercise that took more than three months, while the other parts were towed by barge up the Zambezi to be reassembled on the Upper Shire River near Mangochi and launched on 6 June 1901.
Named in memory of the first bishop of Likoma, who drowned when his boat capsized in a storm in 1896, the MV Chauncy Maples initially served as a floating school and hospital, whilst also carrying supplies from the mainland to the UMCA headquarters on Likoma. Seconded to the colonial government during World War I, it was used as a troop carrier and to support the gunship HMS Gwendolyn’s attackont he German ship, Herman Van Wessman, but after the war it was returned to the UMCA and once again administered education and medical assistance to remote lakeshore communities.
In 1953, the high cost of maintenance persuaded the UMCA to sell the MV Chauncy Maples to the government, and it was used as a passenger ship by Nyasaland Railways. Following independence, the boat was taken over by the government of Malawi, refitted and remodelled as a more stylish passenger ship by in 1967 and again in 1971, and it continued to ply the lake up and down several times a month until 1992, when its licence was withdrawn after it nearly capsized in a storm. However, formal inspections at the time revealed the riveted steel hull to be in excellent condition, and following a dry-dock inspection at Monkey Bay in 2009, the marine engineer Pieter Volchenk concluded that the boat was in better condition than many modern ships are after 20 years at sea.
As a result. The Malawian government, supported by various local and British donors, now reputedly intends to resurrect the MV Chauncy Maples as a hospital ship, administering free medical treatment, maternity care, dentistry, immunisation for babies and family planning to lakeshore communities.
