Sad to see her on the beach in the Solomons, it brings back memories of the day she was launched. I was stood between the railway lines and the quay edge on Hotwells Road on the opposite side of the dock to the Albion Yard when she came down the slip.

Sorry itwas Max McGuire

Greetings from bloody cold Switzerland
Was a part time Chef on the Queen of the Isle in 92
Had a great time on Board
Thanks and lots of Greetings

ps. Any body knows where Mark Hopkroft (Hopi) and Derek McQuire are?

what a blast from the past.good to see a site that shows the old girl off;if only we had the time again,some of the best seaman cut their teeth serving on board.loved the antics from the bosons locker.keg were are you?

Thanks for a well researched site. I sailed on the Queen from Cairns to TI return in about October 1992 and it beat any of the upmarket cruises available then or today. I have many photos of that trip if you are interested. Sad to see how she ended up. Does anyone have any information on the fate of the MV Noel Buxton? Prior to the Queen, she sailed the same route and I also did a voyage with her in about 1989. She was a little "downmarket" compared to the Queen. The vibration from her prop shaft would foam a good head on a flat beer.
Cheers

I worked on the conversion of the ship from Olovaha to Gulf Explorer in the early 1980's. Spent many weeks/months converting the hold into cabins and sprucing up the great cabin and upper cabins and so on. Last time I saw her was in Tauranga Harbour before she was moved to escape the potential bridge entrapment. Often wondered what became of her after NZ waters. Now I know!

Hi again. Great to read so much great feedback from the old days. My memory is not too good, but I do remember Phil as a deckie,Toby (Tony) as Bosun, Claire as hostess,John Rice as Engineer, Doug as Skipper for a while,then Captain Jack,but I forget so many of the other names.I served as a deckie around 88'-89,then joined the sailing vessel Atlantic Clipper doing the same run to Thursday Island, and we would regularly pass each other at sea. Great memories, and lotsa' love to all. I am married and now live in the States, and still have 3 small sailboats that I love to sail.

Unfortunately I'm too young to remember the Queen in her original days, but my mother remembers her vividly - she had two crossings on her whilst travelling between Scilly and Penzance to go to school, and between them she threw up 23 times!

For my own sake I always remember the scaled model of her in the IoS Museum, and as a youngster always confused why the ship didn't look the same as the Scillonian III (until I could read I thought they were one and the same!). Not sure if the model's still there as haven't been in the museum in ages, despite my grandparents living next door to it. Shame on me...

Anyway, great site, and it's a shame about her eventual fate.

Maeve, Caroline(kakadu), if you come back to this site ... Please email me... ronnie161@hotmail.com...

I remember travelling on the old girl, vice Scillonian, a few times between Pz and Scilly and particularly I vividly recall her ability to roll on wet grass! It was strongly rumoured locally that she was originally intended to be somewhat longer but that a section in front of the bridge was omitted for reasons of economy - a rumour undoubtedly engendered by her decidedly odd profile.

A shame to see she's gone at last, but she certainly earned her living one way or another.