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.

Olovaha has been the most famous and useful in the modern history of Tonga. I was young but I remember so many times I stand at the wharf waving to relatives leaving Tongatapu to outer islands of Haapai and Vavau. My dad was working as an accountant for the government owned shipping company that runs the Olovaha. It is beautiful ship with lots of great memories. I especially remember when so many people, almost overcrowded on the decks as they wave. I will talk to my dad to get more information about Olovaha. I never ride on it but it was always a topic at home.

Hi Folks... came across this website and it blew me away. The memories came flooding back.. Will have to go to the attic for some fab photos I have... worked on the Queen (pretty much a haze the entire time) 1990 - what a blast... Shane/rhonda/andy(max),graeme, bernard, Caroline, shona, paula,brad/sean/ian/mark/paul/kelly... don't want to leave anyone out... it was a party day in day out... what an experience and what great people! Memories for life.... Love you all. M