Really enjoyed your site even if the ending is quite sad. I sailed on the Queen from Llandudno sometime in the mid 1960s with my father who took me aboard as I had been admiring the ship as I had seen it passing on previous sailings. At the time I would have been about 8 or 9yrs old but I can still remember the excitement as we walked down llandudno pier. It was a fairly short morning 'around the bay' type cruise but one I can remember I enjoyed. During the cruise my father bought me an enamel lapel badge of the ship which I still have in my possession.Sadley my father passed away at the end of last year, but this was certainly one of the trips that I remember him for. Excellent web site hope it can be kept updated. Thank You

Hello Andy: got around to looking, great website. Now have two items from the vessel live on ebay. One is : Queen of the Isles excursion 1968 Eastbourne Hastings Item number: 270324349890 and there are others accessible via Specialist Auctions. regards Robert

post script to previous message. i forgot to post my email address!!! here it is- bearsclawblades@yahoo.com.au the lifeboat will be for sale in the near future.........

excellent site. i need some help. i now own one of the queens lifeboats and would like some history on them.if anyone can help please feel free to email me. thanks

What a great site. What a great amount of history. I was backpacking the area and had the great fortune of being a crew member in 1990. Seems like yesterday. Thanks for creating such an informative and memorable place to view and remember the "Queen"

Great to find your website - it brought back memories of a day trip to Scilly on her sometime around '67. She was always a bit lively - I can sympathise with all the others who remember turning a shade green! (you could always judge how good a crossing it had been by the number of brown slicks over the white paint on the stern!) Lovely ship, great to see the old photo's.

This is a great website! I saw your post on planet-tonga.com. I'll forward any info that I might find.

Good to see that our ship Queen of the Isle is celebrated online so well; My grandfather descended from Scillonian shipbuilders, and so I set out to research all the Scillonian Mail Packet ships; I am pleased that my pages have been found useful here. I have a great deal of pictures yet to be uploaded on to my website, along with many others on the other ships of the Isles of Scilly. The reason why the Queen of the Isles was not used more in these waters is quite simply that she did not respond well to the sea currents here, even the most seasoned of sailors have problems here. Queen of the Isles acquired the nickname of floating bucket, as she did not handle at all well, tossing and swaying.

Took the Olovaha from Nukualofa to Vavau in late 1979 during a severe tropical storm. The 'eighteen hour' trip took actually close to three days because the crew had to find and rescue a catamaran first that had lost it's sail/ mast in the storm. With 300 + people aboard (cabins for fourteen if memory serves me right) that turned out to be a rather wild experience. I do have fond memories of the Olovaha and the South Seas. Great to find the link for your site on the Matangi Tonga pages!

The first time I ever travelled anywhere, I sailed on the Olovaha from Lifuka, Ha'apai, an island about 100miles from the Tongan capital of Nuku'alofa. My village people wanted to present gifts and perform traditional dances at the Tongan King's daughter's wedding in June 1976. I was so excited about getting on the Olovaha, because I'd only ever watched it from the beach as it sailed past my village on its way to the wharf at Pangai (the main town of Lifuka). I don't remember much about the actual trip, but I always treasure the memories of my first trip on the legendary ferry.