In 1898, the Chauncy Maples was built at the shipyard of Alley & McLellan in Glasgow. She was then disassembled into 3,481 parts and shipped out for reassembly at Monkey Bay as a missionary/hospital steamer on Lake Malawi. Now, one hundred and twelve years later, the Chauncy Maples may be returning to duty as a traveling clinic on the 560 kilometer long Lake Malawi. The Chauncy Maples Malawi Trust is now attempting to raise £2m to fund the project. With major sponsorship from insurance firm Thomas Miller and wider support from donors and NGOs, they appear to be well on their way.
Chauncy Maples, Lake Malawi’s Clinic
Thanks to David Asprey on the Marine History List for the heads up.
This is a great project for a famous ship. One really has to hand it to those Victorians. They accomplished amazing things. I believe this is the ship used as the Imperial German Navy river gunboat in the film “African Queen”. Is this correct?
Good Watch.
It would be great if it was. So far I haven’t found any reference to the ship being used in that or any other movie. The Chauncy Maples was a missionary ship until 1953 when she was turned over to Malawi. The movie African Queen was made in 1951. Chauncy Maples was used as a gunboat in World War I but my guess is that she was used by the British. Lake Malawi was the site of the “first British naval victory of World War I” but I believe the British gunboat was the Guendolen and not the Maples.
It is wonderful that such a classic old ship has the chance to do such wonderful work.
Further research on German East Africa revealed that the German Imperial Navy gunboat SMS Luisa was played in the film “African Queen” by ST Buganda. This was a steam tug which traded on Lake Victoria and was used for the long shots. It was surprising to me, at first, that all these vessels were built in Europe then disassembled and shipped to East Africa. On thinking about it how else could it be done in those days. The portage from seaports to Lakes are amazing stories in themselves.
Good Watch
Very interesting. Thanks.
I was amused to read that all of the Chauncy Maples hull sections were numbered to facilitate reassembly. Apparently then they were galvanized covering up all the numbers, so the sections arrived in Monkey Bay as a huge jigsaw puzzle.
I have just been staying in the 1891 house of Commander Rhoades, who fired the first shots of WW1 from HMS Gueondolen. Opposite the house on the roundabout, in Mangochi on the River Shire, is the 6 pounder Hotchkiss gun that first them.
Yesterday I found the original boiler of Chauncy Maples which was towed by 450 Ngoni men, lieing in the lake on the eastern side.
Janie Hampton, Director of Chauncy Maples Trust
If you go on the website you can down load a better version of the film – this UTube one is a bit distorted.
I think Thomas Miller, the managers of the UK P&I Club, deserve special mention as one of the major backers of the project. In lieu of lavish dinners and the like, they’ve decided to celebrate their 112th anniversary this year by throwing their full support behind the Chauncy Maple’s rehabilitation and transformation into a vehicle for humanitarian aid.
There must be other dilapidated ships out there that can be brought back to life and put into the service of poor communities. Perchance, the Chauncy Maple will trigger interest in such ventures.
thanks, rick. an amazing story. it reminds me of lake titicaca’s victorian gunboat . .. yavari. here’s the link: http://www.yavari.org/ it also reminds me of my time in africa . . . on a remote forest “road” in congo and coming nose to nose with a 1930s era mercedes benz used by some nuns for visiting their clinics. it was a solid old car and well-maintained.
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