Worked as the kitchen hand 92'. Loved the lifestyle and friendship. I lost contact with people over the years so hopefully thos will help reconnect. I'm in one of the photos where we have gone ashore at TI. Hat backwards with yellow framed Oakley sunglasses. I was 18.

I sailed on The Queen of The Isles from Oct. 89 to March 90 as 2nd Mate. The Skipper was Mike Aston originally from The UK. We sailed from Cairns up to Thursday Island stopping off to watch the sunrise over Cape York. Really it was a fantastic experience.
I loved every minute. We spent Xmas on board ( 1989 and got back to Cairns for New Year 1990.

Hi, I worked on the MV Noel Buxton for about a year in 1989/90 sailing from Cairns to Thursday Island. We had three different skippers, but the one that kept coming back was Jack Ball. The crew changed, but, for a time there was an English girl named Mandy. After I left, I believe the ship was sold for scrap to the Westpac Bank. She was kind of...unseaworthy. Was anyone else here around at that time?

Thank you for this wonderful trip down memory lane. In 1987 we were in our early twenties and enjoyed a fantastic cruise from Cairns to Thursday Island. We have many photos of our trip featuring passengers and crew.

Hi just been reading your website on the queen of the isles and was wondering if you could tell me where I could obtain some plans to enable me to build a model of this class ship Regards vernon

Having just returned from St. Ives following a family holiday covering 3 generations of us, we were reminiscing about the Queen of the Isles and found your brilliant web site.
I travelled on her with my then girlfriend to St. Mary's for a day trip one rainy day in the summer of 1970 the price of the return ticket then was £4.00. We left the quay in St. Ives and rounded the island lookout the sea was heavy and waves were breaking over the foredeck (I have some 8mm cine film of the trip I will find and put on) we went up to the bridge and the Captain was pleased to talk since everyone else was being seasick.
Being flat bottomed suited the tidal harbours but was not very stable in heavy seas.
The Captain told us that the BBC had just made a documentary out the ship supplying the Scillies and several times they had to turn back because the camera crew who were in the focsle kept getting swamped out and sick from the waves breaking over the bows.
I knew she was sold to be used for island hoping in warmer climates but did not know of her sad demise, I was rather hoping she was still being used somewhere in the world.
The noise of her hooter being sounded at St. Ives quay 15 mins before departure will stay in my memory forever.
It would be nice to find the BBC film documentary and add it to this site as a tribute to this not very pretty but practical and functional ship that would have still been a great attraction to St. Ives had she still been around today.keep the storie

A very interesting site you have created. One correction: I do not think the aerial photo you use on the 2 Minerva reef pages is actually Minerva Reef. You can tell from the Google Earth images. Minerva South is shaped like a figure eight and Minerva North is an ovoid. The photo you have is much more irregular.

I've been to Minerva Reef 4 times. It's a remarkable place.
Cheers,
Bruce

just to complete a couple of names when she was on the Scillies run. the skipper was Len Davis and the steward was Jerry White

I remember the Queen as she sailed from St Ives to Scilly in the 60s. My grandfather was Harbourmaster in St Ives and supported the venture which was opposed by local boatmen who failed to see the importance of this sailing in revitalising St Ives as a port. I saw her again in the late 60s or early 70s sailing in the Menai Straits

My ex wife Lyn and I,along with my Parents,took the cruise from Cairns to Thursday Is. when the Coral Sea Celebrations were on. Dad was stationed on TI during WW2, so it was an exciting nostalgic trip for him. He showed us his name carved into the wall of the bunker under the old gun emplacements on top of the hill. We enjoyed Willie Nelson's old city council bus Tour up there as well. That cruise ,on a ship with so much character, will always remain in my memory as a major fantastic journey. The passenger numbers were down so the crew spent a lot of time with us, and they were just fantastic. I was so disappointed to learn that she is laying wrecked in the Islands .