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July 2010 | nautilusint.org | telegraph | 29
MARITIME HERITAGE
A new life
for Africa’s
oldest ship
An appeal has been launched to convert a vessel
built in 1898 into a floating clinic for Lake Malawi...
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The London-based maritime insurance
specialist Thomas Miller is making a major
contribution to an ambitious project to
give new life to what is believed to be the oldest ship
still afloat in Africa, the Glasgow-built Chauncy
Maples.
To mark its 125th anniversary, Thomas Miller has
launched a fund-raising appeal to help with the restoration
of the 112-year-old ship and to convert it to a
floating clinic that will provide medical care in one of
the world’s poorest countries.
The Chauncy Maples Malawi Trust needs to
raise up to £2m to enable the planned refit to be
completed within a 12 month timeframe. Thomas
Miller is contributing £250,000 and had already
raised a similar amount from its friends, employees
and business associates even before the official
launch of its appeal last month.
Chauncy Maples was built in Glasgow in 1898 for
British missionaries working in central Africa, and
was shipped to Mozambique in 3,481 small parts.
Together with an 11-ton boiler mounted on
wheels, the vessel components were moved by river
and then overland, with local tribesmen carrying
and dragging them the final 100 miles to Lake
Malawi for the two-year assembly work.
Since then, Chauncy Maples has had a chequered
career with service as a gunboat, a trawler and even
a refuge from Arab slave traders. Until recently, the
vessel was used as a bar.
The restoration project aims to use qualified local
marine engineers and apprentices to ensure the
floating clinic is fully operational in one year.
The initiative is badly needed: Malawi is the
world’s fifth poorest nation and half a million people
living along the 560km coastline of the lake have
The Chauncy Maples was shipped out from Glasgow in more than 3,480 small parts and went on to serve in such
varied roles as a missionary ship, a gunboat, a trawler and ‒ most recently ‒ a bar
neither access to health care nor medical protection
from conditions such as cholera, malaria, tuberculosis,
dysentery and HIV-Aids. Many of those seeking
medical attention currently paddle dug-out canoes
up to 80km to reach medical aid, risking fatal attacks
by hippos and crocodiles.
Thomas Miller chairman Hugo Wynn-Williams
said the company had decided to support the project
because it would make a huge difference to the local
community and reflect the firm’s global reach and
maritime heritage.
Director Mark Holford said several potential
donors had already come forward to offer more
practical support, such as equipment or services.
Chauncy Maples is presently fitted with a Crossley
diesel engine that replaced the former steam plant in
1967, and Thomas Miller has had talks with ‘a major
manufacturer of diesel engines who we hope will
offer us a new main engine on favourable terms’.
Trust director Janie Hampton added: ‘Sailing
between the small village communities scattered
around the lake, Chauncy Maples will bring free
treatment for common diseases, dentistry, maternity
care, immunisation for babies, family planning
and information on safe sex.
‘Presently, Malawi citizens have a life expectancy
of just 36 years; with only one doctor for every
52,000 people, the infant death rate is 111 per 1,000
births — 20 times worse than Europe. We are certain
that the team of nurses that will be living and working
aboard Chauncy Maples will reduce mortality
rates of both adults and children.’
LEGAL
How the SS Robin will look in its new role as a maritime museum and learning centre Picture: Ruben Beltran
Robin rises again
An important milestone was
reached last month in the
preservation of the 1890-built
historic ship SS Robin, with the
delivery of a purpose-built pontoon
to support the vessel and provide
the base of a new museum.
The world’s only remaining
steam coaster will now be housed
in a structure which is ‘part ship,
part floating dock’ — to be used as
a maritime museum and learning
centre for young people.
The new SS Robin museum
should be ready to open to the
public in 2012.
Things were not looking so
good for the Robin two years ago.
She had been used as a floating
museum and arts centre for many
years in London’s West India
Dock, but by 2008 her hull had
deteriorated to such an extent that
she was in danger of sinking and
had to be closed to the public.
A fundraising effort was
underway to pay for the necessary
repairs, but the project was given
additional urgency because a new
railway station was about to be
constructed across the exit to the
dock, cutting off the vessel’s route
to dry dock.
Fortunately, a £1.9m loan from
the Crossrail company enabled
the Robin’s trustees to take her
to a repair yard in Lowestoft and
to commission the 50m x 15m
pontoon from the Finomar shipyard
in Szczecin, Poland.
‘It was only when we got to the
dry dock stage that we were able
make a full assessment of the ship’s
condition,’ says project director
David Kampfner. ‘That’s when
we realised we had two options:
the restoration route, where we
made the vessel seaworthy but
essentially had to give her a 21st
century hull; or the conservation
route, where we kept the old hull
but had to accept that she would be
out of the water permanently.’
The conservation option was
chosen, partly because this would
allow the Robin’s interior to be
seen in something like its original
condition. ‘You can’t really see the
cargo hold properly if you need
to put in a bar, or classrooms,’
explains Mr Kampfner. ‘Sometimes
children would even come away
from their visit [to West India Dock]
thinking that old ships had full 01
modern staircases because of the
additions that were there. Now
we’ve been able to strip away some
nasty 1970s plywood and reveal
some wonderful seams of rivets.’
Classrooms, exhibitions and
a café will now be located inside
the new pontoon, which will be
large enough to walk around inside
— giving the museum as a whole
10 times as much space as it had in
its previous incarnation.
With the conservation project
progressing well, the next step
is to find a new mooring for the
museum. Initial negotiations have
focussed on the south bank of the
Thames in central London, but
David Kampfner says that other
offers would be considered: ‘We
would be happy to go to any city
that would appreciate having a
museum about seafarers and the
Merchant Navy. In fact, if Telegraph
readers have any suggestions
for the new mooring, please get
in touch with us via our websites
www.ssrobin.org and www.
kampfner.com.’
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