Title: Monkey Bay shipyard
Description: Historic shipyard currently operated by Mota Engil, with several Clyde-built ships in the harbour, including the Ilala II, the Mpasa and the Nkwazi. The oldest motor vessel in Africa, the SS Chauncey Maples was built in Rutherglen, Glasgow. The SS Chauncey Maples was designed by Henry Brunel and Sir John Barry and built by Alley & McClellan of Glasgow at a cost of £13,500.
'The Big Pull' - the 11-ton boiler being hauled overland to Lake Malawi
To transport the ship to Lake Nyasa it was disassembled into 3,481 parts, with an average weight of 25kg. The only part that had to be transported in one piece was the 11-ton boiler. It was shipped to East Africa and then towed on a barge and hauled overland by 450 Ngoni tribesmen, averaging five kilometres a day.
Unfortunately, when the parts of the hull were galvanised in Glasgow the numbering system was hidden, so the engineers in Malawi had to work out a huge jig-saw to re-assemble the ship. In 1901, two years after leaving Britain, the Chauncey Maples was successfully launched on Lake.
