The company specialised in supporting the far reaches of the British Empire[4][page needed][failed verification] by building vessels that were dismantled into kit form once they had been completed.

[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 560 km (350 mi) through uncharted malarial land to the East African Rift.

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).

Re-assembly[7][8][page needed] 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.

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".

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.

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.

[13][page needed] 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.

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 Cairene Dragoman 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.

[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.

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.