The tasks ahead were many and varied. Good publicity was essential. Without the support of the local press to help spread the message "Save the Medway Queen" the project probably would not have succeeded.

We had three hundred tons of ship to look after. She was tied up in the Medway and submerged at every high tide. We were amateur volunteers and there was a lot to learn, very quickly!!

We needed friends - friends to join our new Society, friends who would lend their expertise, friends who would lend a shovel or bucket or type up a few letters, or who would take out a small sales stand to help spread the word and raise a few bob.

During the next couple of years we worked hard to refloat the ship, become a Registered Charity, and raise enough money to purchase the ship. It was a proud day in 1987 when we were handed the ship's logbook and could say that she was all ours, "free from all liens and encumbrances". With the help of P&O we revived the New Medway Steam Packet Company to own the ship on behalf of the Society.

The next big task was to find a safe berth for the ship. A new friend, David Dunwell, offered the site at Damhead Creek where the ship remains today. The day we towed the ship to her new home remains one of the most exciting in our twenty one years.

In the early days we wondered if we would ever have one hundred members, but our membership is now about one thousand strong, not only in Britain but all over the world. The eyes of ship lovers everywhere are watching the MEDWAY QUEEN story with interest.

We have had "highs" and plenty of "lows" along the way. We have met some lovely people, were privileged to get to know several of the war-time crew from the ship, and saddened to see so many of them pass away before we could complete the task of saving their special ship.

Artists and songwriters, jewellers and poets, even keen knitters, have all been inspired by the MEDWAY QUEEN. We have support from celebrities, from people of influence in all walks of life. We regularly get support from all parties in the House of Commons. Our Society was present at the London Boat Show for several years. We mounted a very successful exhibition in Chatham Dockyard and also in Dunkirk, we have featured in papers and magazines, radio and television, and our sales stand appears at fairs and rallies all over the South-east and beyond. The word has certainly been spread.

Twenty Two years seems a long time to remain with a project, but those of us involved feel that we are just custodians of this vessel. She was built before most of us were born and we fully intend that she will be around long after we are gone.

The MEDWAY QUEEN story isn't finished yet. As we look to a glorious future, we would like to thank all the friends and supporters everywhere who have helped us over the last twenty one years. We look forward to working with you long into the future.

Noreen Chambers
Hon. Secretary
Medway Queen Preservation Society
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HMS Medway Queen - "Heroine of Dunkirk"
---------------------------------------------------------------------
With the dark days of war gathering, P.S. Medway Queen was the last paddle-steamer of the Queen Line to complete the 1939 June to September summer season before being called up for war-time duties after 15 years service as a pleasure craft. In preparation for her new rôle she sailed to Deptford Creek for conversion to Minesweeper. Her colour was grey and nothing else. An aged 12-pounder gun was mounted on her bows and a Hotchkiss machine gun on each paddle-box, and her bridge was enlarged and strengthened. Taking on her Royal Navy crew, she was for a while based at Harwich but after seemingly endless days spent fighting the North Sea she was ordered to Chatham Dockyard for a refit. And so it came about that she joined the 10th Flotilla that swept the Straits of Dover, joining many other old paddlers which had given sterling service from coastal resorts, providing end of the pier trips around the bay and between resorts. It was from this position that on 27 May 1940 she received orders to proceed to the beaches north of Dunkirk as one of a small Flotilla of eight ships that was ordered to sail from Sheerness. This is the story of the Medway Queen.
The Flotilla, comprising Sandown, Gracie Fields, Queen of Thanet, Thames Queen, Princess Elizabeth, Laguna Belle, Brighton Belle and Medway Queen, weighed anchor on the night of 27 May 1940. In line-ahead, they steamed through the night to a point about half a mile from the shore at Dunkirk where, in the first faint light of dawn, could be made out long lines of men standing like human piers stretching out into the water - knee, waist, even neck-high in it, standing so patiently there in full equipment, boots, rifles, packs, tin helmets and all, with sergeants passing, or rather swirling, their way up and down the lines with a word of encouragement here and a command there. Orders were to leave by daylight but in the face of the task confronting the Flotilla this was not possible, and as dawn broke, the ships put off their lifeboats to be rowed or towed to the heads of the human queues. So began what must have been the very start of the evacuation from the beaches at Dunkirk.
The anti-aircraft cruiser Calcutta stood by, giving support against any German aircraft which ventured over, but apart from a few bombs which went wide, there were no untoward incidents, and at 7.00 a.m. Medway Queen, with the rest of the Flotilla, left the beaches and headed for Dover.
On the way back and just outside the Harbour, a heavy air raid developed during which Medway Queen shot down a German fighter. In the confusion Brighton Belle drifted over a submerged wreck, tore out her bottom and began to sink. Medway Queen went alongside and took off her soldiers, together with her crew, before the old ship subsided to the bottom. Medway Queen then continued on her way to Dover and disembarked the soldiers.
The Flotilla reassembled at 5.00 p.m. on the second day and once again in line-astern steamed out from Dover and made for Dunkirk, this time with instructions to enter the harbour. Off the entrance the Flotilla came under very heavy fire from shore batteries and some of the ships hauled out of the line as the sea spouted columns of water around them. The scene was awe-inspiring. Rows of great oil tanks were blazing furiously and the glare was reflected on the clouds. Heavy shells plunged into the harbour, which was littered with wrecks. It was enough to daunt the stoutest navigator, but still the ships came and went, feeling their way past uncharted obstructions and avoiding each other.
On the way across during that second night the sea was unusually phosphorescent. Medway Queen's paddles left broad twin wakes and on two occasions German aircraft followed these wakes to their end and dropped bombs uncomfortably close. They were nothing if not resourceful aboard Medway Queen and devised oil bags which were lowered over the bow on either side, as done at sea to break the force of heavy waves. This proved to be most successful. The brilliant wakes disappeared and Medway Queen went on her way in decent obscurity. Again, at the most critical point of the trip, when the ship was creeping along the French coast past Gravelines, the funnel began to stream sparks, apparently caused by soot deposits catching fire. The sparks made the ship a very obvious target and had to be suppressed. Set against the tragic background of burning Dunkirk, there was the formation of a bucket chain from the main deck and up the ladders to that part of the flying bridge which approached the funnel. The tallest sailor took the buckets of water and tried to tip their contents down the funnel, either to put out the fire or at least damp it down. This was reasonably successful, but not much appreciated by the engine room staff!
The Harbour that night presented an appearance that was to become all too familiar, of the wreck of one of the most modern ports in Europe. Docks and quay walls were reduced to rubble and torn and broken ships lay everywhere. One single pier remained - the outer mole on the north side of the Harbour. Never designed for handling goods or allowing the passage of men, it was all that was left and the Navy decided to use it. It can be said that it was this concrete strip on its concrete piles that helped save Britain and the Free World.
During the nine days of the evacuation very nearly a quarter of a million men walked, stumbled or were carried along its length. Ships were sunk alongside it, putting parts of the mole out of use. Lengths of it were torn away by shell or bomb. The gaps were repaired using mess tables from ships, by ladders, wood planking and other material taken from debris around the harbour, and all the time, silhouetted by the flames at night and looking drawn and tired by day, that weary file of men stumbled along the length of the mole.
Many types of ships made fast to that mole. Destroyers with their advantages of speed and manoeuvrability played a significant part, but there were also the personnel carriers, as the pre-war cross-channel ships were described, and the hospital ships, the trawlers, the drifters, the Dutch skoots - every variety of small ship, civilian and naval, and of course, the Paddle Minesweepers. All in their turn came, filled up, and went, and it is notable that there was never any distinction between nationalities or Services. All who came were taken. Any man who presented himself abreast the ship was embarked.
As the days came and went the drill became familiar. Because the decks of Medway Queen were so much lower than the level of the mole, scaling ladders were erected as she came alongside. Some of the crew went ashore to control and direct the soldiers, to assist the wounded, and so on. Work went on to an accompaniment of rough oaths and crude instructions, hurrying and harrying, but, in the exhausted state of most of the soldiers, it proved to be the right approach. It went on against a background of blazing oil tanks, the scream, splash and explosion of shells, the roar of bombs and the heavy detonations from the city where demolition was proceeding. Finally, when the old ship was down nearly to her sponsons in the water, the word would come to the Captain, "We are full up, sir; time we went," and she would make her way down the fairway and out into the roads.
Once clear of the harbour she would pick her way through the cleared channels, known as X and Y, or on occasion, if the tides were right, slip over the minefields to save time, relying on her shallow draught to get her by. After the first day she used Ramsgate as it was less congested than Dover. She would arrive back at about 10.00 or 11.00 in the morning, disembark the troops, take on oil, fuel, water and stores, or whatever stores were available, and proceed out to the roadstead to await dusk and the next trip. Some nights she was directed to the Harbour at Dunkirk, sometimes diverted to the beaches, but as day followed night and night followed day without respite, weariness blurred the outline of events. Only the habit of discipline and the power of men's wills kept the little ship to the appointed task.
At the beaches a different drill applied. As soon as she dropped anchor the boats were lowered, manned and towed away by the motor dinghy to the beaches where the soldiers waited so patiently in the water. When the boats returned the soldiers boarded by the sponson doors behind the paddle boxes, and away the boats went for further quota of human cargo and so on through the night until, with the approaching dawn, she sailed for home.
Mistakes occurred, of course. One very dark night she was waiting long hours with neither sight nor sound of the boats. The captain was getting worried and very angry. Finally, near dawn, the motor dinghy arrived with two loaded cutters in tow, drew alongside with a flourish, and a cheerful voice called out, "That should just about fill you, sir." "What the so-and-so do you mean?" roared the captain. "This is the first load we've seen all night!" Medway Queen used a private signal on the blue signal lamp for the boats to home in on. It appeared that someone else had chanced to adopt the signal and, in the darkness, the boats had obligingly filled up another paddler! She had no choice but to delay while the boats made several more runs before she could decently up-anchor and return to Britain.
Picture Medway Queen on any one of those crossings. Let us start forward in the windlass flat, directly below the fo'c'sle head. Here we had the 'cells'. As was perhaps inevitable, she collected a few undesirables - drunks, suspicious characters and suspected fifth-columnists - among the thousands who were taken aboard. These were deposited under the watchful eye of Stoker Jackson, the self-appointed jailer, until they could be handed over to the authorities at Ramsgate.
Coming aft, on the port side, was the Petty Officers' Mess, converted for the evacuation into accommodation for the Sick Bay Rating. With very little equipment or supplies he did his best to ease their pain or their passing. One young soldier, badly wounded, asked to be lifted up to see the white cliffs of England as the ship approached. He died in his comrade's arms as he was raised towards a porthole.
On the starboard side was the Stokers' Mess where merchant service firemen lived. Below, and reached by a companionway, was the Seamen's Mess filling the width of the ship. All the bunks and most of the floor space here, as in the Stokers' Mess, was given over to soldiers, often leaving the crew with nowhere to lay their heads in rare off-duty hours.
Next came the galley where the cook, a tall, quiet individual, toiled night and day to prepare for and feed the never-ending line of hungry mouths that passed his doors. It was one of his proud boasts that every soldier who came aboard was fed, and even though he had only one assistant, he never let them down.
Immediately aft of the galley came the engine room space, separated by rails from the alleyways on either wide but otherwise open to view, with the controls platform at its rear overlooking the machinery. Here Chief Engineer Davis, Medway Queen's engineer in peacetime, tended the levers and wheels with which he controlled the engines and the rotation of the paddles. In confined waters and under attack, the safety of the ship depended on the promptness with which the engineer followed orders from the bridge relayed to him by the engine room telegraph. Throughout the evacuation Engineer Davis, like the Captain, never left his station while the ship was at sea. By the time it was all over he was grey with strain and weariness.
Still going aft, behind the engine room, the main companionway led up to the decks. The stern was occupied by the Officers' living quarters with stores below. The Wardroom (Mess) was made over to Army Officers during the evacuation, where they stretched out asleep, had a meal, or just talked - endlessly discussing how and why this humiliating retreat had overtaken an Army which had not been beaten in the field. The stewards laboured in the Wardroom, as did the Ship's Cook forward, to supply food to all who needed it - and won much appreciation for their efforts.
Every alleyway was choked with troops, stretched out exhausted or else jostling, talking, arguing, and so on. The decks were also crowded with soldiers. On the weather deck forward the 12-pounder was always manned, as were the Lewis guns on the sponsons, and these were always attended by volunteer groups of soldiers to fill the magazines and thereby feel that they were 'having a crack' at Jerry.
On about the third trip there appeared a sand-bagged enclosure on the after-deck, set up by three army cadets. These were stout lads - none over twenty - who asked to come aboard, bringing with them two Bren guns, which they manned to excellent effect throughout the remainder of the evacuation. On Medway Queen they believed in concentrated firepower. A party went ashore at Dunkirk and succeeded in "borrowing" a number of abandoned Bren guns. These were lashed to stays and shrouds with a single turn of rope which formed an ideal swivel. Provided with a pile of ammunition beside each, they were handy for whoever was nearest to use in an attack. Beyond this, all troops and sailors who had a rifle were encouraged to blaze away at approaching aircraft on the sound principle that a storm of rifle fire could be as effective as a number of machine-guns. The total result was impressive in discouraging any close approach by hostile aircraft and certainly contributed to Medway Queen's survival and the good score of three low-flying aircraft shot down during the evacuation.
Many curious happenings occurred. There was the party of Spanish sailors, refugees from an earlier war, caught in France by the German advance, who were picked up from a raft at sea. They spoke little English but settled down happily. It happened that night that Medway Queen was hailed in English by a naval officer in a small motor vessel with instructions to proceed twelve miles up the coast where a pocket of troops had been cut off and were awaiting evacuation. She set off, but the crew, speaking by chance to the Spaniards, were horrified to learn that the place had been in German hands for two days. The Spaniards had escaped from there! Later, it was learned that a destroyer had been similarly hailed that night and torpedoed when it hove to, but that another destroyer, aware of this, had opened fire on being hailed and had sunk the motor vessel. There was every opportunity for fifth-columnists to infiltrate in the chaos in and around Dunkirk, and there is no doubt that some did. A few, fortunately very few, E-boats (motor torpedo craft) slipped through the naval screen under cover of darkness to add to the hazards of shell and bomb which the little ships had to face.
The abortive trip delayed arrival at the beaches and with the coming of daylight enemy activity further delayed loading. She was therefore hours late getting back to Ramsgate and had been posted missing, but only learned of this the following day when papers came aboard proclaiming, "After all, Medway Queen has returned safely!"
By Monday 3rd June the Germans were finally closing on Dunkirk. At midday Vice Admiral Ramsey issued orders that all ships were to leave Dunkirk by 2.30 the following morning. Medway Queen set out on her seventh trip, thereby establishing the record for all ships below the size of destroyer. She berthed beside the mole for the last time at midnight, and machine-gun fire could be clearly heard. The sands of time were running out very fast. She took on board about 400 French troops as all the B.E.F. had by this time left, and in the final stages the French held the shrinking perimeter. Shelling in the harbour was very heavy. A destroyer astern of Medway Queen was hit and flung forward against the starboard paddle box, extensively damaging the sponson. At about 1.00 a.m. the Captain nursed the ship clear of the berth, with difficulty because of the damaged sponson, and Medway Queen made off very slowly down the harbour, with the familiar mole, still lit by blazing oil tanks, falling astern.
Among the first to arrive off the beaches, Medway Queen was one of the last to leave Dunkirk and on the morning of Tuesday 4th June 1940, damaged, worn out and very weary, she limped into Dover. The evacuation had ended. Vice Admiral Ramsey signalled "Well done Medway Queen" and the ships in harbour sounded their sirens as she made for her buoys. This was a very proud moment!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some Reminiscences from the Men of Dunkirk
Bruce Sutton, Medway Queen Crew
"One afternoon in May 1940 the Medway Queen left Dover for Dunkirk where our forces were in trouble. A long time before we got there we saw the flames and smelled burning oil. No person who was there will forget it. We went six more times mostly to La Panne but sometimes to Dunkirk Harbour going around many wrecks. We had a motor boat which towed another to and from the beach. The army lined up on the shore. I did not see anyone panic or jump the queue. When the ship returned to Ramsgate our passengers were whisked away, we fuelled, stored, tidied up and it was time to go again. On one trip we came back in company with Brighton Belle and she hit a wreck. We went alongside and they all came aboard before she sank. Fortunately it was a calm day as we were very overloaded. At one time three fighter planes chased each other around near us and one man bailed out but I don't know if he was friend or foe.
After Dunkirk we had a few days leave and I slept for the first 24 hours. Back aboard the Medway Queen we anchored in the Downs in fine weather and caught fish. Later we thought that we were going to end up as the first line of defence and I hoped that we would get a message off before we were sunk. Some said that Dunkirk was a nine days wonder. A destroyer called Sabre did eight trips. We came second with seven."

Albert T. Nason, RN, Crew
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"When we came close to Dunkirk there was nothing but smoke, thick black smoke from the oil tanks that had been bombed. Medway Queen did not pick up any troops from the Harbour itself on that trip but was sent on to the beach at La Panne. We had towed some small motor boats over from England to pick up the troops and on the first morning we got there the boats went off and started loading us up. When we were full we started coming back, there was a girl on the beach dressed as a soldier but they spotted long hair hanging down her back and they wouldn't let her come on board. while we were in Ramsgate getting ready to go over for the seventh trip everyone was saying that it was getting a bit fierce over there. Lt. Cook called the crew together and told everyone to write a postcard to their families and then all hands went ashore to the pub on the jetty where the Captain bought us all a drink. On that last trip while in Dunkirk Harbour we were damaged when a destroyer astern of us was hit. This badly damaged our paddle box and it took us a lot longer to get back than it should have done and we heard on the BBC News that the Medway Queen had been lost. At first we laughed but then we realised that our people at home would have heard the report too. When we got back to Dover we were given six days special leave."

Bob Pemberton, 88th Field Regt. RATA - Survivor
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
" I reflect on what could have happened if the Medway Queen had not picked me up from the beach at Dunkirk in June 1940. I would have been a prisoner of war as the following day Dunkirk fell and 30,000 allied troops were taken prisoner. I was lucky and shall be ever grateful to the crew of the Medway Queen. After Dunkirk we regrouped in England and we were sent out to India and the Far East. I was safe and still able to make some contribution to the war thanks to the little ship that brought me home in 1940."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Medway Queen - A Brief History
Medway Queen is the last surviving ship of her class. Over the past 83 years her fortunes have waxed and waned. Her early years were spent giving pleasure to countless thousands of day-trippers. She then donned her grey coat and proudly served her country, the most gallant action being the rescue of 7,000 allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk, during which she shot down three enemy aircraft and received awards for gallantry. After the war she resumed her rôle as a pleasure steamer until the decision was made to scrap her. The scrap-yard was avoided when she was taken to the Isle of Wight to be used as a nightclub. When she became too small for this purpose she was abandoned, until she was rescued and brought up to the Medway again. Unfortunately, plans to renovate her were unsuccessful and once again she languished in the mud, this time by the Dockyard wall, half submerged and filling with mud, and once more threatened with the scrap-yard.
She was saved by the formation of the Medway Queen Preservation Society, whose dedicated members bought her and laboured for hundreds of hours to clean out the mud and get her afloat again. She was then moved to Damhead Creek, which is her permanent home today.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Medway Queen - The Present Day
This year, 2007, the Medway Queen enters what is perhaps the most crucial year of her chequered career. Now in her 83rd year, her condition can best be described as frail. This is not surprising when one considers the fact that many parts of the ship still consist of the 1920s steel of which she was originally constructed.
Money is, of course, required, and never more so than at the moment when we are dealing with a lottery fund application and require matching funding.
If you can help with fund-raising in any way, large or small, every penny would be helpful and very much appreciated. Can your Club or Pub hold a Medway Queen night? Can your factory or firm or school hold a "Save a paddle-steamer" day?
Please, can you help?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Medway Queen - The Future
The winter's of 2004/05/06 was not good to the Medway Queen. Every gale and every unkind high tide have taken their toll. The fragility of this once proud old lady becomes ever more evident, and there is a distinct possibility that this past winter may have been one winter too far. There are many volunteers, some of whom are well into retirement, who turn out every week, in all weathers, to help with the work on her. There are also the tireless fund-raisers who keep the coffers topped up. The efforts of all the Members of the Medway Queen Preservation Society cannot be praised too highly. However, what is really needed is a large injection of funds which would enable the ship to be dry-docked and replated. This would enable her to become totally watertight and secure, thus enabling the rest of the refurbishment to take place. Because of the generosity of many individuals and businesses, many of her "accessories" have been renewed, but unfortunately this will all be wasted if her frail plates are not renewed.
Imagine if you will, five or so years from now. The Medway Queen is leaving from Strood Pier on a bright summer day. The decks are lined with families - most of whom have probably never had an experience such as this. There will be older people, too, for whom such a trip would bring back childhood memories. Imagine the excitement of seeing and hearing those paddles start to turn as the Medway Queen pulls away from the jetty, and the anticipation of the trip on this historic vessel, and then the arrival at Southend Pier. This may be only a pipedream at the moment but it could become a reality. The Medway Queen could be self-supporting and once again give pleasure to thousands.

We must get her replated before it becomes too late.

It has been estimated that since the evacuation at Dunkirk, 42,000 people owe their lives to the Medway Queen. The time has come for us to return the compliment.

thIs this of concern to us in the United States? You bet. Our society has a number of veterans of World War II. All of us have, or had, fathers, uncles, brothers, grandfathers, friends and loved ones who served in the European Theatre in those dark days. Think, if you will, what would have been the price to America and Americans had Britain not stayed the course as the bulwark against Germany in 1940. Without the 338,000 soldiers evacuated from Dunkirk, Britain might well have collapsed before America entered the war. It takes only a moment to realize what that would have meant to the USA: fighting a war from a base 3,000 miles away for lack of a European base of operations, and an essentially go-it-alone fight in the west. The cost in American money, materiel and, especially, lives would have been appalling. Medway Queen stands for all of the Western democracies as a symbol of a turning point in our history.

Donations to:
Medway Queen Preservation Society
72 Bells Lane
Hoo St Werburgh
ROCHESTER
Kent ME3 9HU
UK

Brian Goodhew & Kathie Clark
Medway Queen Preservation Society

March 2005/06

'You can purchase a copy of:
"HMS Medway Queen - Heroine of Dunkirk"
a new booklet with coloured pictures.
Please send a cheque for £2
(made payable to Medway Queen Preservation Society),
together with an A5 self-addressed envelope, stamped 1st or 2nd class, to:
Mrs K Clark, 163 Shakespeare Road, Gillingham, Kent ME7 5QB.

All proceeds from the sale of the booklet will go to the Medway Queen, so you will be helping to save this historic vessel.'