MV Chauncy Maples

The Chauncy Maples is a steel screw steamer built in Glasgow in 1899 for the Universities' Mission to Central Africa. Shipped in 3,481 pieces and reassembled by 1901 on Lake Malawi (then Lake Nyasa) – with its 11-ton boiler hauled overland by hundreds of local workers – the vessel was named after Bishop Chauncy Maples, an Anglican missionary. It operated as a mobile mission station on the lake, serving as a floating church, school, and clinic for remote lakeshore communities.
During World War I the colonial government requisitioned Chauncy Maples as a troop carrier and armed gunboat; in 1915 it even engaged a German vessel in battle on the lake. After the war, the ship returned to mission service until 1953. It was then sold and converted into a fishing trawler in the mid-1950s. Following Malawi's independence, the government acquired and rebuilt the ship in 1965-1967 as a diesel-powered passenger and cargo ferry, renaming it MV Chauncy Maples. Its original steam engine was removed (later preserved in a museum) and replaced with a diesel engine. The ship continued to operate on Lake Malawi for decades, though its usage declined after a newer ferry was introduced in the 1980s. In 1992, Chauncy Maples was retired from service and laid up at Monkey Bay.
Starting in 2009, a UK-based charity partnered with the Malawian government to renovate the aging ship into a floating medical clinic. The vessel was dry-docked and initial restoration work began, but unforeseen technical problems and escalating costs halted the project. In 2017, the planned renovation was officially abandoned due to the deteriorated hull and funding constraints. Today, Chauncy Maples remains out of service as a historically significant ship – often regarded as the oldest ship afloat in Africa – and a reminder of Malawi's maritime and missionary heritage.