PS Medway Queen - Timeline

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 and then was sunk by accident
• 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.