For some reason I wondered today what had been the destiny of the Queen of the Isles and I found this wonderful site.
I worked for P & A Campbell Limited for 2 seasons (1968 and 1969). Campbells used to run an annual cruise from Cardiff to the Isles of Scilly at Easter each year taking 3 days and stopping overnight in Penzance in both directions.
In 1969 the cruise was run by the Queen of the Isles and I worked behind the bar for the whole cruise. The cruise started on Saturday morning with the Penzance to St Mary's and return leg being on the Sunday. My recollection of the outward journey from Penzance is that I was extremely seasick throughout the crossing and felt most unwell. However I recovered quickly on reaching dry land and spent a pleasant afternoon exploring St Mary's before a much calmer trip back. During the afternoon ashore I saw Jim Callaghan and his wife who were on holiday there. I believe Jim was deputy Prime Minister of the UK at that time and went on to become Prime Minister in the early 1970s.
To this day, this was my one and only trip to the Isles of Scilly. Thank you for bringing the memories back to life.

I was neither cast or crew, but worked in the Brisbane office (it was my first job - a rather eventful 6 months) as the Receptionist for the 'Queen of the Isles II in 1990), taking bookings, talking to Lesley at the Cairns office...I think I might still have the brochure somewhere Thanks for taking the time to research this special ship and creating this website and the fb page.

Following on from a previous message about this ship operating on the Mersey and serving north Wales - I have a framed picture of the Queen of the Isles with the inscription ''My Ship' during 1968-69' below it. On the back, it says 'Queen of the Isles 1968 - 1969 - 1970 Master Capt Davies'. the background in the photo looks like the Mersey. The picture came to me in Menai Bridge, north Wales.
john

I've been writing some stories re my past employment. I was Third Eng on the Queen not long after she first arrived in Cairns and started the Cairns - Thursday Island cruises. I was fortunate to be able to locate this site which has filled in some missing buts of my memories of those times. Thank you.
Cheers,
Stu

Thank you for this great site: I was trying to date a photo of Queen of the Isles that I have from her Scilly days, and this helped a lot. (My photo is here, if you are interested: )

Just found this site.
I was Assistant Naval Architect in Charles Hill when The Queen was built and remember her well. I have often wondered what happened to her .
She was built like a tank as she needed permenant ballast and had to take the ground at frequant intervals so her bottom plates were about 5/8" thick.
Also the cargo hold was sized to suit standard daffodil boxes.

What a wonderful website! I remember my one and only trip on the "Queen of the Isles" to the Scillies and unfortunately, I was very sea sick! However, I have always admired her and was sorry to see her departure from this run, so any attempt at a return voyage on her
Actually, I stumbled across this website through researching this ship because I've recently bought a model of her, built originally by an 80 year old man who was a frequent traveller to the Scillies, his favourite one being the "Queen". He has done a good job with the model, but some detailing work is needed which I can now attempt. The model is 36" long, radio controlled and it's good to be reaquainted with her, albeit, in a small way.

Just letting everyone know myself & a friend of mine went on the Queen around December 1990 we recorded a song about the Queen of the Isles in around 1991. The song received airplay in N.Q. & hundreds of copies of the song were sold that yr. If anyone would be interested in the cd please email me. Regards David

A great site. My father, Bob Krey (other posters have referred to him as Bob Craze), was Secong Engineer on the Queen from her maiden voyage until she left for a new life in Tonga. I made several trips on her over the years, including one to meet Robin Knox Johnson as he neared the end of his solo non-stop trip around the World. I'll try and find some photos for the site.

Mighty usfuel. Make no mistake, I appreciate it.