PS Medway Queen
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| History | |
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| United Kingdom | |
| Name: |
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| Owner: |
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| Port of registry: |
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| Builder: | Ailsa Shipbuilding Company, Troon, Scotland |
| Yard number: | PS 388 |
| Launched: | Wednesday 23 April 1924 |
| In service: | 1924 |
| Out of service: | 1964 |
| Identification: |
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| Status: |
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| Notes: | Sea trials 1924 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: | 316 GRT |
| Displacement: | 134 tonnes |
| Length: | 179 ft 9 in (54.79 m) |
| Beam: |
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| Draught: | 7 ft 8 in (2.34 m) |
| Installed power: | Scotch type boiler 11 feet long, fitted with triple furnaces feeding Ailsa built compound diagonal steam engine. Coal fired when built, converted to oil fired by Wallsend Engineering in 1938, built by Ailsa |
| Propulsion: | Paddles |
| Speed: |
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| Armament: | 1 x 12 pounder gun, 2 x machine guns (HMS Medway Queen) |
The PS Medway Queen is a paddle driven steamship, the only mobile estuary paddle steamer left in the United Kingdom. She was one of the "little ships of Dunkirk",[1] making a record 7 trips and rescuing 7000 men in the evacuation of Dunkirk.
She was the subject of a £1.8 million National Lottery Heritage Memorial Fund grant to restore her hull. By 2014, her hull had been reconstructed and she is sitting at Gillingham Pier on the River Medway.
History
PS Medway Queen was built at the Ailsa Shipbuilding Company in Troon, Scotland, in 1924 for service on the River Medway and in the Thames Estuary. Trialled on the River Clyde, she was delivered to be part of the "Queen Line" fleet of the New Medway Steam Packet Company based at Rochester, Kent.[2] She steamed the Thames on the routes from Strood and Chatham, to Sheerness, Herne Bay and Margate in Kent; and Clacton and Southend in Essex.
After attending the coronation Fleet Review for George VI at Spithead in 1937, she was converted to oil-fired steaming by Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Company in 1938.
World War II
Requisitioned by the Royal Navy as a minesweeper, she was renumbered No J 48 (N 48), serving for the duration of World War II in the 10th minesweeping flotilla, protecting the English Channel.
Her first task in 1939 was evacuating Kent children from Gravesend to East Anglia.[3] She was refitted in the shipyard of the General Steam Navigation Company (Deptford Creek), her aft being modified to take minesweeping gear. She operated patrolling the Straits of Dover. In May 1940 Operation Dynamo was launched to rescue the retreating British Army soldiers from Dunkirk in northern France. HMS Medway Queen became part of the flotilla of little ships. Medway Queen was fitted with a 12-pounder gun and two machine guns. She left with PS Sandown, PS Thames Queen, PS Gracie Fields, PS Queen of Thanet, PS Princess Elizabeth, PS Laguna Belle and PS Brighton Belle. She was to make seven crossings.[3]
On her first trip, soldiers were taken off the beaches in lifeboats and ferried to the ship. On her return to Dover, her arrival coinciding with an air raid. She shot down a German aircraft outside the harbour. The "Brighton Belle" ran over sunken wreckage and began to sink. All of her passengers and crew were rescued by the Medway Queen without loss of life, and heavily overloaded she made the harbour.[4]
On her second trip she took the soldiers directly off the beach- which required more skill, but was a lot faster. They used a technique with oily bags to conceal their distinctive wash from patrolling aircraft. On later trips, the Medway Queen penetrated the damaged Dunkerque port and took off men from a concrete jetty or mole.[3] Men were discharged at Ramsgate rather than Dover, where the vessel was re-oiled and reprovisioned.[3]
On Monday 3 June Vice Admiral Ramsey gave the order that all ships were to leave Dunkirk by 2.30 the following morning. This was the Medway Queen's seventh trip. She was at the mole in Dunkerque when a destroyer moored astern of her was driven forwards by an explosion and smashed her starboard paddle box, she sustained considerable damage. Medway Queen limped back to Dover with 400 French soldiers on board. By then, she had rescued 7,000 men.[4]
She gained four awards for gallantry, having shot down three enemy aircraft, made seven crossings and rescued 7000 men.[3] In view of this remarkable achievement in rescuing so many Allied troops from France, she earned the title of "The Heroine of Dunkirk".[4] In 1942 she was converted to a mine sweeping training ship, and served out the war in this capacity.[5]
Return to service
Rebuilt by Thorneycrofts of Southampton in 1946, she returned to civilian service with New Medway Steam Packet Company for the 1947 season. When Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953, PS Medway Queen again attended the Coronation Review at Spithead.
She made her last sailing on 8 September 1963,[6] and was scheduled to be scrapped in Belgium.[7] The Belgian ship-breaker, upon discovering that the vessel he was expecting to break up was none other than "The Heroine of Dunkirk", declined to continue (it is reported that he felt that no one should dare to destroy such a gallant and important little ship). The Daily Mail newspaper campaigned to save her.[8]
Use as nightclub
Having been saved from scrapping, Medway Queen was eventually sold for use as a nightclub and marina clubhouse, and was moored at the Medway Queen Marina (now known as the Island Harbour Marina) on the Isle of Wight. The club opened in 1966. In 1970, a larger ship, PS Ryde, renamed as Ryde Queen, joined Medway Queen at the marina site, also operating as a nightclub. The two premises operated alongside one another for a period, until the Medway Queen was eventually closed and fell into disrepair.[9]
Preservation
In 1978 the Medway Queen was bought by private owners with the aim of preserving her. She was moved out of the marina to the adjacent River Medina, but sank in the river when the hull sprang a leak. There she remained, in a state of increasing deterioration, until in 1984 she was salvaged, moved to Cowes at the river’s mouth, and thence towed back to Chatham in Kent on a salvage barge.[9] In 1985 the Medway Queen Preservation Society formed, with the intention of preserving the historic ship.[10]
In 1987 she was moved to Damhead Creek, Kingsnorth on the Hoo Peninsula, but the trust lacked funds to bring her back to service, and struggled to preserve the structure. After a series of near disasters, in 2006 the National Lottery Heritage Memorial Fund agreed a £1.8 million funding package to restore her structure, subject to the society raising £225,000. Having completed the fund raising, the trust was disappointed that neither the insurance company or marine engineers were confident that her hull was seaworthy and able of sustaining lifting on to a pontoon. In October 2006, the Trust agreed to the deconstruction of the hull, and salvageable pieces were moved to Gillingham Pier (and a National Lottery funded warehouse) in Chatham Dockyard, in preparation of the hull being professionally restored to seaworthy condition.[11]
In October 2008, the society signed a contract with David Abels Shipbuilders to restore the hull at the Albion Dry Dock in Bristol. This to be done using plate rivetting by a team of 10, and was envisaged to take two years.[12] Work began in April 2009 and was due to be completed in the summer of 2010.[13] On 27 July 2013 the ship was rededicated. Plans were to float her out of the Albion Dock during the summer of 2013 and tow her back to Gillingham for a reception on 2 November.[14][15]
The tow home to Gillingham using the tug Christine started from Bristol on 24 October 2013,[15] but due to weather conditions they were held up at Avonmouth until 15 November when the wind abated sufficiently, and the tow around Lands End and through the English Channel could continue in safety.[11]
At around 3pm on Friday 15 November 2013 the Medway Queen departed Avonmouth towed by the tug Christine. Benefiting from the good weather the tow continued throughout the weekend with her arriving back on her home territory on the River Medway. Despite earlier delays in commencing the tow the weather remained kind to the 'Heroine of Dunkirk' as she made the entire journey around Lands End and along the South Coats of England in one go without the need to seek shelter along the way. The tug and tow finally arrived on the River Medway on Monday 18 November 2013. Due mainly to tidal restriction the Medway Queen was buoyed in Saltpan Reach until high tide the following day.[11]
The crowds were gathered, the TV crews were in position and around 1.30pm the Medway Queen was finally in sight as she made her final leg of her journey to her new home at Gillingham Pier. Under the guidance of tug master Alan Pratt the historic vessel was brought gently into the pier at high tide.[11]
Official number and code letters
Official Numbers were a forerunner to IMO Numbers.
Medway Queen had the UK Official Number 148361. She used the Code Letters GGNG from 1944.[16]
Timeline
- 1924 – built Troon, Scotland, by the Ailsa Yard for service on the River Medway and the Thames Estuary. Trialled on the River Clyde
- 1925 – working on River Medway and the Thames Estuary, part of the "Queen Line" fleet of the New Medway Steam Packet Company based at Rochester, Kent
- 1937 – attended the Coronation Review for George VI at Spithead
- 1938 – converted by Wallsend Engineering from coal to oil burning, by Wallsend Engineering
- 1939 – carried children evacuated from Kent to East Anglia. Joined Royal Navy as minesweeper No J 48 (N 48) serving for the duration of the war in the 10th minesweeping flotilla in the English Channel
- 1940 – became part of the flotilla of ships evacuating British Army soldiers from Dunkirk during Operation Dynamo. After making seven trips (the record number of crossings by any merchant navy ship involved in the evacuation), she rescued over 7,000 men gaining for the ship's crew four awards for gallantry and shot down three enemy aircraft. At one time during the evacuation she was overdue and was thought to lost with all hands and troops – but she eventually arrived back at Dover, ready to return to France for more troops. The sterling efforts of the ship and her crew earned the paddle steamer the title of "Heroine of Dunkirk"
- 1946 – rebuilt by Thorneycrofts of Southampton
- 1947 – returned to civilian service with New Medway Steam Packet Company
- 1953 – attended the Coronation Review for Elizabeth II at Spithead
- 1963 – taken out of service, with the possibility of being broken up (but the Belgian shipbreaker declined to break up the "Heroine of Dunkirk", so she was thus saved an ignoble end)
- 1964 – sold, and latterly opened as a nightclub on the Isle of Wight
- 1970s – replaced by larger ship PS Ryde, moved to the River Medina but sank when the hull sprang a leak
- 1984 – raised and towed back to the River Medway on a pontoon by new owners
- ???? – abandon and sinks again, while moored against the wall of Chatham Dockyard
- 1985 – the Medway Queen Preservation Society formed, with the intention of preserving the historical ship
- 1987 – raised and moved Damhead Creek, Kingsnorth on the Hoo Peninsula
- 2006 – the National Lottery Heritage Memorial Fund agree £1.8 million funding package to restore structure, subject to society raising £225,000
- 2006 – deconstructed, as hull considered unseaworthy or of sustaining lifting on to a pontoon. Hull and salvageable pieces moved to Chatham Dockyard
- 2009 – Restoration begins in April. New hull to be constructed at Albion Shipyard, Bristol.
- 2011 – Visitors' Centre opens at Gillingham Pier funded by the European Heroes2c project with sister projects Association Tourville and de Steenschuit
- 2013 – Rebuilt hull entered the River Medway under tow from Bristol at Sheerness 18 November 2013
References
- Notes
- ↑ Association of Dunkirk Little Ships: List of Dunkirk Little Ships Retrieved 6 March 2014
- ↑ Kempton 2014a.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Kempton 2014b.
- 1 2 3 War & Peace Show 2010 Official Programme. Edon Publishing. 2010. p. 14.
- ↑ "PS Medway Queen - History". medwayqueen.com. Retrieved 27 July 2010.
- ↑ "Medway Queen". National Historic Ships UK. Retrieved 4 Nov 2013.
- ↑ "Medway Queen". Tramscape. Retrieved 27 July 2010.
- ↑ Kempton 2014c.
- 1 2 Medway Queen Preservation Society
- ↑ Chambers 2014.
- 1 2 3 4 Kempton 2014e.
- ↑ Robinson, Hayley (10 October 2008). "Crowning moment for Historic Queen". Medway Extra, Larkfield, Kent.
- ↑ "Dunkirk rescue boat gets revamp". BBC News Online. 17 April 2009. Retrieved 17 April 2009.
- ↑ "Rededication of the Medway Queen". The Medway Queen Preservation Society. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
- 1 2 "Rebuilt Medway Queen Journey To Kent". GMB Newsroom. 21 October 2013. Retrieved 12 September 2014.
- ↑ "LLOYD'S REGISTER, NAVIRES A VAPEUR ET A MOTEURS" (PDF). Plimsoll Ship Data. Retrieved 17 April 2009.
- Bibliography
- Kempton, John (2014a). "The Pre War Years". Website History. Medway Queen Preservation Society. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
- Kempton, John (2014b). "The War Years". Website History. Medway Queen Preservation Society. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
- Kempton, John (2014c). "The Post War Years". Website History. Medway Queen Preservation Society. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
- Kempton, John (2014d). "The Isle of Wight Years". Website History. Medway Queen Preservation Society. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
- Chambers, Noreen (2014). "Early Preservation Years". Website History. Medway Queen Preservation Society. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
- Kempton, John (2014e). "Preserving the Hull". Website History. Medway Queen Preservation Society. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to PS Medway Queen. |
Coordinates: 51°24′N 0°34′E / 51.400°N 0.567°E
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