World of Ships – May 2018

24 I World of Ships I Paddle Steamers

PRINCESS ELIZABETH

BUILT 1927 by Day, Summers and Co, Southampton, to order

of the Southampton, Isle of Wight and South of England Royal

Mail Steam Packet Co

DIMENSIONS Length 195ft; beam 24ft 2in over hull, 48ft over

paddles

TONNAGE 371 gross, 170 net

CAPACITY 707 passengers, 10/12 cars

MACHINERY Two-cylinder compound diagonal by builders,

94hp, with coal-fired boiler converted to oil firing in 1946

SPEED 14.5 knots (trials), 13 knots (service)

the ship increasingly used for open days and

special functions, which culminated in June

2015, when Medway Queen was towed to

Ramsgate to spend a week hosting events

marking the 75th anniversary of the Dunkirk

Evacuation. Work towards the ultimate

objective of returning Medway Queen to

service under her own steam continues,

with support by Medway Council, Mid Kent

College, local businesses and the GMB Union.

Princess elizabeth

Princess Elizabeth was ordered by the

Southampton, Isle of Wight and South of

England Royal Mail Steam Packet Company,

later branded as Red Funnel, and was the

last steamer from the Day, Summers Yard

in Northam, Southampton when she was

delivered in 1927. In design, she was a virtual

copy of Princess May, introduced in 1911

and lost in World War I. A coal-fired boiler

provided steam for a two-cylinder compound

diagonal engine to power the 371gt vessel.

The open foredeck was designed to carry

10 or more cars on the Southampton-East

Cowes service, but the vessel started with the

outdated feature of having alleyways running

around the outside of a narrow after saloon

which was not extended to the full width of the

hull until a post-World War II refit in 1946,

when the boiler was converted to burn oil.

Now Princess Elizabeth lies in the centre

of Dunkirk at the Estacade Quay, near the

ABOVE Another Weymouth view of Princess

Elizabeth, this time showing her with passengers

waiting for an afternoon cruise, with a Channel

Islands mail vessel berthed in front.

ABOVE Medway Queen in Bristol’s Albion Dock, with flags raised to celebrate rededication after

completion of more than two years of major hull restoration work in July 2013. (MPQS)

Pole Marine Shopping Centre. After different

earlier roles, she opened in summer 2017 as a

gastronomic restaurant serving local cuisine

but with a British touch. Earlier Princess

Elizabeth figured in scenes for director

Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed film ‘Dunkirk’.

Through the 1930s Princess Elizabeth was

used for excursions as w ell as ferry work,

and spent summer 1939 running trips from

Bournemouth. Within a month of the start

of World War II, she was requisitioned as an

auxiliary minesweeper, joining the Dover-

based 10th Flotilla, making the first of two of

four trips to beaches east of Dunkirk Harbour

in company with the flotilla’s remaining

vessels before two independent sailings, and

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