MV Ilala

The Ilala leaving Nkhata Bay, 1990
History
Name:	MV Ilala II
Operator:	Malawi Lake Services
Port of registry:	Monkey Bay
Route:	Monkey Bay - Chilumba
Builder:	Yarrow Shipbuilders, Scotstoun, Scotland
Yard number:	1917
Launched:	1949
Completed:	1951
Status:	in service
General characteristics
Tonnage:	620 tons
Length:	172 ft (52 m)
Installed power:	diesel
Propulsion:	screw
Capacity:	360 passengers; 100 tons of freight

MV Ilala, formally Ilala II, is a motor ship that has plied Lake Malawi in East Africa since 1951. She is operated by Malawi Lake Services and based in Monkey Bay, Malawi (on the southern end of the lake); every week she crosses the lake all the way north to Chilumba, Malawi, near Tanzania (about 300 miles (480 km) from Monkey Bay) and then returns to Monkey Bay. She carries both passengers and freight, and calls at major towns on both the Malawian and Mozambican coast, as well as at the two inhabited islands of the lake (Likoma and Chizumulu). While the ship is often late (reportedly by as much as 24 hours or more) and has sometimes broken down she remains the most important means of long-distance transport for the people living on the coast of the lake. She is 172 feet (52 m) long overall, has a gross tonnage of 620 tons and can accommodate up to 365 passengers and 100 tons of cargo.

Yarrow Shipbuilders at Scotstoun near Glasgow, Scotland built Ilala for Nyasaland Railways in 1949. As she was the second boat to be built for service on Lake Malawi (the first being built in 1875 at Poplar), and her predecessor was called Ilala, the ship was formally named Ilala II, but she is now commonly called just Ilala and this is also how the name is painted on the hull. In turn, the first Ilala was named after the Ilala region of Zambia, where David Livingstone was first buried.

Once built, the ship was dismantled and transported to Malawi (then Nyasaland) in pieces, first by ship to Mozambique and then from Beira, Mozambique by rail and road to Chipoka. She began operating in 1951, and has run continuously since then, except for periods of maintenance. She also survived several groundings. Some steel panels have been repaired over time, and she was re-engined in the 1990s. When Ilala has been out of service for maintenance, she was usually replaced by a companion, newer ferry called MV Mtendere (which means "peace" in Chewa), which otherwise only cruises the southern part of the lake.