MV Chauncy Maples is a motor ship and former steamship that was launched in 1901 as SS Chauncy Maples. She spent her entire career on Lake Malawi (formerly more widely known as Lake Nyasa) and was regarded as the oldest ship afloat in Africa.[2] After more than one hundred years' service it was intended to restore her 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 and charity fundraising was sufficient to make progress. The hull was found to be beyond repair at a viable cost so a more practical modern craft was proposed to give ambulance service around the lake.
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. 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.
Purpose and delivery
The SS Chauncy Maples was designed to steam the extensive waters of Lake Nyasa, the most southerly lake in East Africa. At 560 kilometres (350mi) long and 80km (50mi) wide it is the eighth-largest lake 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),[5] the 150-ton ship was one of the last designs produced by Henry Marc Brunel, son of the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.[1] 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.[1]
The boiler was built by Abbott of Newark.[1] It weighed 11 tons and was transported in one piece on a special wagon fitted with Sentinel wheels, to be hauled overland by 450 Ngoni tribesmen for 560km (350mi) through uncharted malarial land to the East African Rift.[1] The other parts of the ship were man-handled or carried on the heads of men and women over difficult terrain and across river beds: they averaged only 5km (3mi) a day.[1]
David Livingstone
Archdeacon Chauncy Maples (left) with fellow missionary Rev. W.P. Johnson in 1895
David Livingstone, the first European to reach the lake and an evangelist for steamboat missions,[6][pageneeded] had made much quicker progress in 1859, claiming much of the area surrounding the lake as part of the British Empire, forming the colony of Nyasaland. Although Portugal took control of the eastern shores of the lake, the islands of Likoma and Chizumulu were colonised by Scottish missionaries and, as a result, became part of Nyasaland rather than Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique).
Reassembly
Re-assembly[7][8][pageneeded] of the Chauncy Maples proved to be even more arduous than the journey—in error, the part numbers had been stamped on each section prior to the galvanising process, making the task for the African engineers even more complex. It took two years to re-assemble; the vessel was finally launched on 6 June 1901 and named after Bishop Chauncy Maples,[9] an Anglican missionary, later Bishop of Nyasaland. In 1895, while on the way to take up his duties, his boat capsized during a storm on Lake Nyasa and he drowned because of the weight of his cassock.[10]
Hospital ship, missionary school and the extinction of the slave trade
Missionaries brought to Africa far more than religion and the UMCA had a very clear vision for their £9,000 investment. The ship had three overt tasks—to give the lake a hospital ship, a missionary school and an emergency refuge from Arab slave traders. In reality, the goals were of more global importance; as one of the mission's founding supporters, the Bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce,[11] had made clear, the prime task was "the work of civilising commerce, the extinction of the slave-trade and, if possible, the colonisation of Africa".
Lake Nyasa was a long way from the sea, and initial progress with medical provision at Likoma was erratic. The programme had been introduced in 1894, during the brief stay of a UMCA physician. His replacement was the Rev John Edward Hine, who although also a medical doctor was ultimately little interested in this aspect of his duties. When Hine was appointed Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa in 1896 he chose to concentrate on spiritual rather than health-related matters.
SS Chauncy Maples at anchor on Lake Nyasa four years after her launch
The arrival of the Chauncy Maples and Dr. Robert Howard produced a radical change in the level and quality of medical provision to the lakeside inhabitants. Howard quickly laid the foundation of a robust health system with the Chauncy Maples fulfilling a central role. By the 1930s many stations, including those on the periphery, had health clinics run by missionary nurses or by African assistants. With the advantage of details on local diseases gathered by other doctors in the area, mainly from the Scottish missions, Dr. Howard adopted an anti-malaria strategy, and in conjunction with colleagues at Blantyre mission, embarked on an anti-smallpox vaccination program.
For a poorly resourced mission, the cost of maintaining the steamer required a strong focus on local provisioning. With a draught permitting access to all areas of the lake, the ship was largely self-sustaining, her steam engine powered by wood scavenged from the shore areas. But the matter of slave raiding was more problematic, requiring not only manpower for site security, but also an appreciation of the uneasy boundaries that lay between the worlds of evangelism, medicine and trade. Finding appropriately qualified crew prepared to accept low pay and the tribulations of life on the lake was one thing; the mission's unyielding insistence on celibacy among its European staff was an even greater recruitment challenge. Behind all this lay the tensions arising from the mission's intentional policy of overextension of its mission surrounding Lake Nyasa. The Chauncy Maples operated in the contradictory world of an evangelical mission which offered desperately needed medical support to the poor in an environment of political instability and unfettered imperial capitalism.
Apart from a period of service during the First World War as a troop carrier and gunboat, the ship served the inhabitants of Nyasaland for half a century until 1953, when she was sold and converted into a trawler.[1] In 1967 the Malawian government bought her, refitted her as a passenger and cargo ship and replaced her steam engine with a Crossley in-line diesel engine.[1] Her steam engine is preserved in the Lake Malawi Museum at Mangochi.[1] The ship is currently laid up at Monkey Bay.[1]
Controversies of European Christian missions
Although work in the field of health was conducted out of the conviction that western medicine was good for Africans, it was not an entirely altruistic programme. The missionaries were to reflect the emerging Victorian view of Africa and African peoples, that African thought and behaviour needed radical change if they were to be converted to western values. Like missionary work in other parts of Africa, it was viewed as a key means to prove the power and mystery of the Christian message.[12]
In retrospect there is evidence of a lack of missionary sensitivity to many aspects of African culture, the injustices of early colonial land policies, the low priority given to theological education, and the slowness to ordain African clergy.[13][pageneeded] But much as missionaries must be viewed as principally propagators of basic religion, their work in introducing ideas of western medicine and technology undoubtedly had a profound impact on the foundations of modern public health in the region. By 1965, churches provided around 45 per cent of all hospital beds in Malawi.[12]
Some of the missionaries who spent time on the ship recognised the ironic nature of elements of their work. The Rev. George Wilson recorded in his diary:
"Wherever a European goes he seems to carry some subtle power of change; whether it be the government official, the missionary, the planter or the trader, each is working for change, whether he knows it or not. This is a matter of great anxiety to all who love Africans, for I cannot feel at all certain that this change must necessarily be for the better."[14]
Most commentators would have accepted that radical change was now an urgent requirement, as was made clear by the Rev. Robert Keable a missionary in Zanzibar:
"We walked into the partially walled compound or court representing the slave-market a bona fide affair, not like the caravanserai which used to be fitted up and furnished by the CaireneDragoman for the inspection of curious tourists. A wooden cage, about twenty feet square, often contained some one hundred and fifty men, women, and children, who every day were 'knocked down' to the highest bidder in the public place."[15]
The personal cost was high. In the gardens of St. Michael's church at Blantyre, the city named after Livingstone's birthplace in Scotland, is a memorial plaque to fourteen members of the Nyasaland Mission who died in the service of the Church of Scotland's African missions. The dates of death given on the plaque range from 1890 to 1919. A passage from the Gospel of Matthew reads: "He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it".[16]
Restoration
MV Chauncy Maples awaiting restoration in 2008. The current bridge is not original to the ship and will be removed to improve her stability and to return her to her original configuration.
The last formal inspection in 1992 revealed little damage to the riveted steel hull; although a single skin hull no longer complies with current regulations, she has been granted an exemption on the grounds of historical importance.[citation needed] The higher quality of steel produced in 1899 no doubt also played a part—after placing the vessel in a dry dock at Monkey Bay in May 2009, marine engineer Pieter Volschenk concluded that more recently constructed ships looked in worse condition after only twenty years at sea. In January 2012, she was brought ashore for the continuing restoration work.[1]
The restoration is led by the Government of Malawi and supported by the Chauncy Maples Malawi Trust in Britain.[17] It was expected that the vessel would return to the task for which she was conceived in late 2014. Once the Chauncy Maples had been restored to a floating clinic a medical team would provide support and treatment to people living around the shores of Lake Malawi. The country's lake dwellers currently have no access to health care services and face high rates of malaria, HIV-AIDS and tuberculosis. Life expectancy at birth is just under 53 years.[18]
In 2017, the trust announced that the restoration had been abandoned.[19]
"The Chauncy Maples Malawi Trust (CMMT) based in the UK together with Portuguese construction company, Mota-Engil, regret to announce that their joint project to renovate the 100-year-old missionary vessel, Chauncy Maples, to operate as a mobile clinic on Lake Malawi, will not be proceeding. As work has progressed on the vessel, unforeseen technical problems have come to light regarding the integrity of the hull, which mean that the costs of refurbishment have escalated beyond what can be regarded as economically viable—particularly noting that the object of the charity is delivery of healthcare and the vessel was only to be the means of delivery."
Related Research Articles
Nyasaland was a British protectorate located in Africa that was established in 1907 when the former British Central Africa Protectorate changed its name. Between 1953 and 1963, Nyasaland was part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. After the Federation was dissolved, Nyasaland became independent from Britain on 6 July 1964 and was renamed Malawi.
The British Central Africa Protectorate (BCA) was a British protectorate proclaimed in 1889 and ratified in 1891 that occupied the same area as present-day Malawi: it was renamed Nyasaland in 1907. British interest in the area arose from visits made by David Livingstone from 1858 onward during his exploration of the Zambezi area. This encouraged missionary activity that started in the 1860s, undertaken by the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, the Church of Scotland and the Free Church of Scotland, and which was followed by a small number of settlers. The Portuguese government attempted to claim much of the area in which the missionaries and settlers operated, but this was disputed by the British government. To forestall a Portuguese expedition claiming effective occupation, a protectorate was proclaimed, first over the south of this area, then over the whole of it in 1889. After negotiations with the Portuguese and German governments on its boundaries, the protectorate was formally ratified by the British government in May 1891.
Blantyre is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with a population of 800,264 as of 2018. It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, Lilongwe. It is the capital of the country's Southern Region as well as the Blantyre District.
Mangochi is a township in the Southern Region of Malawi. Located near the southern end of Lake Malawi, in colonial times it used to be called Fort Johnston. As of 2018 it has a population of 53,498.
Monkey Bay or Lusumbwe is a town in Mangochi which is in the Mangochi District in the Southern Region of Malawi. The town is on the shore of Lake Malawi and is one of the main ports on Lake Malawi. The population of Monkey Bay was 14,955 according to the 2018 census. Monkey Bay is 206 kilometres (128 mi) from Lilongwe, Malawi's capital city, and 253 kilometres (157 mi) from Blantyre. Monkey Bay is a tourist resort and is often travelled through on the road to Cape Maclear.
Yohanna Barnaba Abdallah was a clergyman and historian of the Yao people of central Africa.
Joseph Booth was an English missionary working in British Central Africa and South Africa. In his 30s, Booth abandoned his career as a businessman and, for the rest of his life, he undertook missionary work for several Christian denominations including Baptist, Seventh Day Baptist and Seventh-day Adventist churches, and he was appointed a missionary by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. Throughout his successive ministries, his defining beliefs were a radical egalitarianism, including a scheme of "Africa for the Africans"’ and, from 1898, Seventh-Day Sabbath (Sabbatarian) observance.
Robert Laws FRGS FRSGS (1851–1934) was a Scottish missionary who headed the Livingstonia mission in the Nyasaland Protectorate for more than 50 years. The mission played a crucial role in educating Africans during the colonial era. It emphasized skills with which the pupils could become self-sufficient in trade, agriculture or industry as opposed to working as subordinates to European settlers. Laws supported the aspirations of political leaders such as Simon Muhango and Levi Zililo Mumba, both educated at Livingstonia schools.
The Universities' Mission to Central Africa was a missionary society established by members of the Anglican Church within the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, and Dublin. It was firmly in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of the Church, and the first to devolve authority to a bishop in the field rather than to a home committee. Founded in response to a plea by David Livingstone, the society established the mission stations that grew to be the bishoprics of Zanzibar and Nyasaland, and pioneered the training of black African priests.
Chauncy Maples was a British clergyman and Anglican missionary who became Bishop of Likoma, with a diocese in East Africa.
James Frederick Sangala was a founding member of the Nyasaland African Congress during the period of British colonial rule. Sangala was given the nickname "Pyagusi", which means "one who perseveres".
Levi Zililo Mumba was a leading local politician and the first President of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) during the period of British colonial rule in Nyasaland, which became the independent state of Malawi in 1964. Mumba was probably the most important figure in the development of Malawi politics between World War I and World War II.
William Percival Johnson was an Anglican missionary to Nyasaland. After education at Bedford School (1863–1873) and graduation from University College, Oxford, he went to Africa with the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, under the Bishop Edward Steere.
SS Gwendolen was a British steamship on Lake Nyasa that fought in the first naval action of World War I against the German steamship Hermann von Wissman which it caught on a slipway at Sphinxhafen, now known as Liuli.
According to the 2018 census, 77.3% of the population is Christian. Denominations include Roman Catholics at 17.2% of the total population, Central Africa Presbyterians at 14.2%, Seventh-day Adventist at 9.4%, Anglicans at 2.3%, Pentecostals at 7.6% and other denominations at 26.6%.
John Buchanan (1855–1896), was a Scottish horticulturist who went to Central Africa, now Malawi, in 1876 as a lay member of the missionary party that established Blantyre Mission. Buchanan came to Central Africa as an ambitious artisan: his character was described as dour and devout but also as restlessly ambitious, and he saw in Central Africa a gateway to personal achievement. He started a mission farm on the site of Zomba, Malawi but was dismissed from the mission in 1881 for brutality. From being a disgraced missionary, Buchanan first became a very influential planter owning, with his brothers, extensive estates in Zomba District. He then achieved the highest position he could in the British administration as Acting British Consul to Central Africa from 1887 to 1891. In that capacity declared a protectorate over the Shire Highlands in 1889 to pre-empt a Portuguese expedition that intended to claim sovereignty over that region. In 1891, the Shire Highlands became part of the British Central Africa Protectorate. John Buchanan died at Chinde in Mozambique in March 1896 on his way to visit Scotland, and his estates were later acquired by the Blantyre and East Africa Ltd.
The Zambesi Industrial Mission was an independent Baptist mission founded in British Central Africa, now Malawi, in 1892 by Joseph Booth, an independent and radical clergyman whose aim was to create a self-supporting mission providing African converts with the educational, technical and economic skills to lead the development of their country towards independence. After disagreements with his colleagues, Booth left the mission in 1897, but it continued as a largely self-supporting Industrial mission until the coffee blight in 1929. After this, it continued as a conventional mission church with growing numbers of congregations and members. After Malawi became independent, the work of the mission church was split into a locally led and funded Zambezi Evangelical Church, partnered by a UK headquartered Zambesi Mission with a local Blantyre office. In 2010, for the first time, a Malawian was appointed to the post of Blantyre-based ZM Field Director. In 2012, the church had about 150 clergy serving over 500 congregations with 100,000 members in Malawi, and was governed by a national Synod meeting bi-annually.
The history of rail transport in Malawi began shortly after the turn of the twentieth century.
The Shire Highlands Railway Company Ltd was a private railway company in colonial Nyasaland, incorporated in 1895 with the intention of constructing a railway from Blantyre to the effective head of navigation of the Shire River. After problems with routing and finance, a South African 3 ft 6 in gauge railway was constructed between 1903 and 1907, and extended in 1908 to a Nsanje, a distance of 113 miles (182 km) as water levels in the Shire River fell.
The Nyasaland Volunteer Reserve (NVR) was a British Colonial Auxiliary Forces unit raised in the British protectorate of Nyasaland. The British Central Africa Volunteer Reserve was formally established by the colonial government in 1901 and was renamed when the protectorate became Nyasaland in 1907. In the initial years the unit was little more than a rifle shooting club with no uniform and no military training. The NVR was placed on a more formal standing in 1908 under the Volunteer Ordinance. This implemented residency and racial requirements for membership and made provision for the unit to be mobilised by the governor. The unit was initially formed of four sections but grew to seven sections by 1914 and by 1930 the unit had ten.
References
The stern of MV Chauncy Maples at Monkey Bay, Lake Malawi, 2008
↑ Anderson-Morshead, A.E.M.; Garland, Vera (1991). Lady of the Lake: the story of Lake Malawi's M.V. Chauncy Maples: being a facsimile reprint of "The Building of the Chauncy Maples". Blantyre, Malawi: Central Africana. pp.not cited.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Nyasaland, Malawi 
