Beeing always interested in vessels having some remarkable history, I came here just by chance, but stayed to read all. She was quite a beautiful ship, and the stories told are fascinating.

Thank you for running this site!

I remember going on a "school trip" aboard this fantastic little ship. it was either in 1969 or 1970. a long time ago now come to think of it but I still have vivid memories. she seemed enormous at the time. a shame to see her beached now but what a varied life. Great site. Nick

Amaceing this site is still running - must be genuin feelings for the ship.
We - my wife and daughter(6) did the first season sailing in may 1991 to Thursday Island on the Queen. We jumped on our around the world journey in 8 mnds. It was a unique wonderful cruise with a remarkeble crew who took personal interest of our welbeeng. We where only 25 passengers on board - we the 3 Norwegians and 2 from Netherland - the rest aussies. The crew almost outnumberd us - what a threat. One day I found my doughter streering the ship on the bridge sided by the captain. Yhe ships history says she is bulid and saild initially in England. My mysteri is - why did we find signs and markings of sequirity in norwegian languish text on board? I did a lot of video and took a lot of pictures of sites , ship ,crew and passenders - if that is of interest.
Sad to realise the Queen is dead.
Bjorn

I am trying to find any information on Scillonian 1952 my late husbands brother was assumedmissing (drowned) on this ship he was with sea scouts aged 11yrs old he came from Oxford

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.