PADDLE STEAMERS
Paddle Steamers I World of Ships I 23
ABOVE HMS Medway Queen as minesweeper
lying in Dover Harbour shortly before taking part in
‘Operation Dynamo’, the Dunkirk Evacuation from
late May into June 1940.MEDWAY QUEEN
BUILT 1924 by Ailsa Shipbuilding Co., Troon, Scotland
DIMENSIONS Length 179ft 9in, beam 24ft 2in over hull, 50ft
over paddles
TONNAGE 316gt, 134 net
CAPACITY 650 passengers
MACHINERY Two-cylinder compound diagonal by builders,
coal-fired, converted to oil fuel 1938
SPEED 15 knots (service 13 knots)ABOVE Medway Queen at Ramsgate in May 2015 to take part in the 75th anniversary of the Dunkirk Evacuation. (Nicholas Leach)ABOVE Medway Queen in the Medway on her way
back to the south-east.Elizabeth, Laguna Belle and Brighton Queen.
The whole flotilla sailed on the evening of
27 May 1940 to load troops from beaches east
of Dunkirk and later returned as a unit for a
second rescue mission from Dunkirk Harbour.
Afterwards Medway Queen made independent
trips heading for France in the evening,
loading overnight and departing for Dover
and later Ramsgate at dawn. Although the
boat was officially recorded as landing 3,046
men, officers on board at the time, including
second in command First Lieut ‘Jack’ Graves,
calculated the actual figure was in excess of
6,000, including more than 800 troops and
crew picked up from the sinking Brighton
Belle early in the evacuation.
After repairs and crew leave, Medway
Queen resumed minesweeping from Doverand was later based on the Tyne before
finishing the war as a training vessel prior to
being returned to her owners in May 1947.
After reconditioning at the Thornycroft Yard
in Southampton, she ran in the New Medway
fleet until her withdrawal in September- Bought by a group of Isle of Wight
businessmen, she was moored in a former mill
pond off the River Medina at Binfield, opening
as a restaurant in May 1966. Two more paddle
steamers, Dart veteran Kingswear Castle
and former Isle of Wight ferry Ryde, also
arrived, the latter becoming the operation’s
headquarters vessel. The business changed
hands several times before going into
liquidation. The 40th anniversary of Dunkirk
found Medway Queen almost derelict and
more time elapsed before the vessel was lifted
on to a submersible pontoon and towed to a
mud berth in the Medway at Chatham, filling
with water on each successive tide.
Following the formation of the Medway
Queen Preservation Society in 1985, progress
started to be made on restoration. After she was
moved in late 1987 to Damhead Creek on the
Hoo Peninsula, the hull was made watertight
and a team of volunteers began working on
the interior. There was a big step forward
in 2006, when the UK National Lottery
Memorial Heritage Fund awarded a £1.8
million grant towards structural restoration,
with MQPS raising £225,000 to enable a
contract to be signed with Bristol-based David
Abels Shipbuilders for hull rebuilding.
The work started in April 2011 and was
completed for the steamer to be rededicated
in July 2013 before she was towed back to
the Medway, arriving in Gillingham on 18
November. Work continued on board, withABOVE Medway Queen sailing away from
Southend Pier towards the end of her service for the
New Medway Steam Packet Company in 1963.01 Paddlers_Britain_NL.indd 23 17/04/2018 09:21