Insurance club manager, Thomas Miller, is to mark its 125th anniversary by supporting the renovation of Africa’s oldest ship as a floating clinic for half a million people living along the shores of Lake Malawi.
Miller decided to back the medical project instead of having a series of parties around the world.
The Miller management company is donating £250,000 ($375,000) and has already raised a similar amount from business associates and employees towards the rebuilding of the 250-gt Chauncy Maples (built 1898).
The vessel was built as an Anglican mission ship in Glasgow and then dismantled into 3,481 parts so it could barged up the Zambezi and Shire rivers before being carried overland for 100 miles by local tribesmen.
The 11 ton boiler could not be dismantled so it was dragged on a cart for 350 miles by 450 Ngoni tribesmen to Lake Malawi.
The Chauncy Maples Malawi Trust aims to raise up to $2m for the renovation of the vessel. The government of Malawi is contributing $250,000 to the project and will provide both the ship and nursing crew for the vessel as well as providing further ongoing support for the project.
Miller has already solicited support from Diana Shipping, the Miller insurance broking company, law firms like Holman Fenwick Willan as well as Reed Smith, underwriters such as Catlin, Ascot, QBE and P&I correspondents like McLeans and Mordiglia.
Thomas Miller director, Mark Holford, who is also involved with the ShipServe e-procurement venture is hopeful that marine equipment suppliers may donate in kind to the project. Particular targets include getting a new main engine on favourable terms and finding a bunker fuel sponsor.
Thomas Miller chairman, Hugo Wynn-Williams, said the decision to support the Chauncy Maples renovation was a more forward thinking alternative to celebrating the anniversary with lavish parties and dinners.
Malawi is the world’s fifth poorest country with only 250 doctors for a population of 14m people and a life expectancy of 36 years. The infant death rate is 111 per 1,000 births, so 20 times worse than European levels. The renovated vessel will call at a different Lake Malawi village a day delivering primary health care including treatment and advice on Malaria, dysentery, tuberculosis, HIV and Aids.
