SS Chauncy Maples

SS Chauncy Maples bedecked with bunting and carrying dignitaries to celebrate fifty years of service on Lake Nyasa
History
Nyasaland, Malawi
Name:	SS Chauncy Maples (until 1967), MV Chauncy Maples (1967-present)
Owner:	Universities’ Mission to Central Africa (until 1953); Government of Malawi (1953 onwards)
Operator:	Universities’ Mission to Central Africa (until 1953); Government of Malawi (1953-67); Malawi Railways (1967-92)
Port of registry:	Monkey Bay
Ordered:	1898
Builder:	Alley & McClellan, Polmadie, Scotland
Cost:	£13,500
Launched:	1901
Maiden voyage:	1901
In service:	1901
Out of service:	1992
Fate:	laid up
General characteristics
Tonnage:	150 tons
Displacement:	250 tons
Length:	126 ft (38 m)
Beam:	20 ft (6.1 m)
Draught:	6.5 ft (2.0 m)
Installed power:	steam engine (until 1967), 330 BHP 6-cylinder Crossley diesel engine (1967 onwards)
Propulsion:	single screw
Crew:	10 (as motor vessel)

MV Chauncy Maples is a motor ship and former steamship that was launched in 1901 as SS Chauncy Maples. She has spent her entire career on Lake Malawi (formerly more widely known as Lake Nyasa) and is regarded as the oldest ship afloat in Africa. After more than one hundred years' service she will be restored for use as a floating medical clinic to support the several million lakeshore dwellers whose average life expectancy is 44 years. The Government of Malawi offered support for this in 2009 but it will depend on the results of charity fundraising.

The location of the Alley & McLellan shipyard in Polmadie, Lanarkshire, might appear perverse, as the yard was a considerable distance from the River Clyde, with the expansive final approach into Glasgow Central Station posing just one of many barriers between it and the Clyde. However, the company specialised in supporting the far reaches of the British Empire by building vessels that were dismantled into kit form once they had been completed.

The resulting set of parts was frequently enormous and a daunting logistical task to transport. Re-assembly also depended heavily upon the availability of skilled labour at the customer’s premises. However, as in the case of the Chauncy Maples, this was frequently the only viable option when the ultimate destination was very far inland, away from any semblance of modern communications.

The SS Chauncy Maples was destined to steam the extensive waters of Lake Nyasa, the most southerly lake in East Africa. At 350 miles (560 km) long and 50 miles (80 km) wide it is the eighth largest inland water in the World. It is also the second deepest lake in Africa and home to more fish species than any other lake on Earth, giving an easy source of food for those who live around its shores.

Conceived and commissioned by the Universities' Mission to Central Africa (UMCA), the 150 ton ship was one of the last designs produced by Henry Marc Brunel, son of the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Once dismantled, the complex kit of almost 3,481 parts was transported by cargo ship to Portuguese East Africa, then towed by barge up the dangerous waters of the Zambezi.