MEDWAY QUEEN Imo 5523065

[Seadog Pete R.I.P.]

MEDWAY QUEEN unknown location, undated
Photo collection:Peter Schliefke (copyright unknown)

Information about The Medway Queen
Yard Number: P.S.388
Tonnage: 316grt (134 net)
Length: 54.9m (180ft)
Beam: 7.3m (24ft)
Beam over paddle frame: 15.2m (50ft)
Normal Draft: 1.7m (5ft 6inch)
Max Speed: 15knts @ 55rpm (13knts @ 45rpm)
Construction: Steel plate riveted on frames
Engines: Compound diagonal type
Boiler: Scotch type boiler (3.4m/11ft long) fitted with triple furnaces. Originally coal fired
until 1938 when it was converted to oil during re-boilering by Wallsend Engineering.

Key Events
1924 Built at Troon, for the New Medway Steam Packet Company
1937 Attended Coronation Review at Spithead.
1939 Carried young evacuees from Kent to East Anglia.
Requisitioned for war service, fitted out as Minesweeper, No. J48.
1940 Rescued 7000 troops from Dunkirk. Shot down three enemy aircraft.
1941Training vessel for minesweeping duties.
1946 Refitted for peacetime use.
1947 First season back on her old Strood to Southend run.
1953 Attended Coronation Review at Spithead.
1963 Taken out of service and laid up.
1965 Sold to ship breaker, huge press campaign to save the ship.
1966 Opened as a Club house on a new marina on the Isle of Wight.
Mid 70s Replaced by larger vessel. Abandoned, sunk in River Medina on the Isle of Wight.
1984 Returned to Kent by new owners hoping to preserve the ship.
Sunk in River Medway at Chatham, future looking bleak.
1985 Medway Queen Preservation Society formed. Work on ship began.
1987 Ship refloated after 14 years under water.
Society became owners of Medway Queen.
Ship towed to berth at Damehead Creek near Kingsnorth Power Station.
1994 Surveys, marketing and design studies carried out. Funded largely by Rochester upon Medway City Council.
1995 Society now 1200 strong. Fundraising ongoing. Future optimistic.
2002 Funnel and fiddley re-built by Appledore Shipbuilders of Devon.
June 2006 Heritage Lottery Fund agreed in principal to award the maximum of ?1.861 million towards the rebuild of the hull of the Medway Queen.
Sept 2008 Heritage Lottery Fund gave permission to award David Abels (Boatbuilders) with the contract to build the new hull.
Dec 2011 New visitor centre opens
Source:http://www.medwayqueen.co.uk/

Medway Queen restoration team lose jobs
29 November 2013
Twelve out of 14 people working to restore the historic Medway Queen
paddle steamer are losing their jobs after funds for the project ran out.
The vessel was one of the "little ships" that helped recue thousands of
soldiers during the Dunkirk evacuations of World War Two.
It returned to Gillingham last week after exterior restoration work in Bristol
was completed.
But the vessel still has to be completely refitted internally.
Read more > http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-25161501

[Rick R.I.P.]

Medway queen

MEDWAY QUEEN ,laid up near Newport Isle of Wight,19/5/1966.


Rick Cox collection,unknown photographer.

[Norman Hardaker]

Medway Queen

Attached is another one of the Medway Queen at Chatham September 1984 with the old dockyard cranes in the background taken on a trip on the Waverley.

[Norman Hardaker]

Medway Queen

Nothing on t/v last night going through photie found another one of the above taken 1987 notice the big crane has gone since previous photogragh

[Unicon, Sg- Gareth R.I.P.]

Hi Norman and aLL
Remember her call at the end of Herne Bay Pier for Southend way back when, hope they can raise the funds to finish her refir Gareth

[canalsider]

Medway Queen

I've got lots of pics of the newly built Medway Queen as she came out of the building dock last month in Bristol. Tired tonight but I'll try and post a couple tomorrow.