Hope for the Medway Queen ?

[lenknight]

It seems that the Medway Queen is to to be granted the
£35.000 from the Lottery, that we had sort re the survey of the
hull and new business plan. Part of the old plan can be used, with a
little updating. A detailed survey will now be carried out
This is good news at last, but only the small part that we need,
being near two million pounds at least for the replating of the hull.
Let's hope our fortune may have at last turned, we will see.
Please view our site at : www.medwayqueen.co.uk  
yet to be updated on this option.
Regards Len

[Eddy Matthews]

Great news Len!

As you say, let's hope that it's the start of some real funding to get the grand old lady back into a decent condition. I can see a few beers will be flowing tonight! :-)

[Khephre]

What fantastic news Len.

Small reward however for the hard work and effort expended so far. Let's hope that this small crack in the floodgates is a sign of more grants (and larger) to come.

If I could post a beer to the website you'd be able to download a shout from your Kiwi colleagues... now there's a challenge for our indomitable Mr Matthews!

Cheers and congrats again
Tony

[Eddy Matthews]

If I could post a beer to the website you'd be able to download a shout from your Kiwi colleagues... now there's a challenge for our indomitable Mr Matthews!

Cheers and congrats again
Tony

You mean like this Tony?  

[PJ]

This is momentous news, Len, and must strike a a chord of hope in the hearts of all those who have fought so valiantly to restore "the Heroine of Dunkirk" to her rightful place in history.

I couldn't find details of the Lottery grant on either of the MQ websites so I have a couple of questions.

Who will be doing the survey and how long will it take to complete?
What is the "game plan" for the ship once the survey is complete?

On another topic.  I recently researched the net to see if there are any Museums dedicated to Dunkirk.  There is a very small museum located in Dunkirque, Normandy which, from what I can see is a rather part time affair.  I contacted the Imperial War Museum in London who say they have no Dunkirk exhibit except for a small corner in the "Fall of France" display.  Furthermore the Dunkirk Veteran's Association was disbanded 5 years ago after it was found that most members had passed on.  Other than that, am I correct in thinking there appears to be no Museum in the UK which has a significant display dedicated to the memory of Dunkirk?  

Isn't this all rather astounding since this was probably one of the most significant events in history without which there might never have even been the D-Day landings and the Second world War might have had a significantly different outcome. In saving 338,000 trapped allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk in such a short period of time,  Churchill referred to it as “a miracle of deliverance”.

You've often mentioned the word "apathy" in your correspondence but it's still surprising that so little importance is attached to the heroic war record at Dunkirk of "Medway Queen" and that she has been ignored for inclusion in the Core Register.  Is anything being done to rectify this?  

Two weeks ago was the 65th Anniversary of Dunkirk and 250,000 poppies were dropped into the sea from an RAF Hercules aircraft.  A fleet of 50 "little ships" was assembling at Ramsgate under escort of "HMS Severn" but apparently bad weather prevented them from making the trip to Dunkirque.  Do you know if there was any fundraising or PR done for "MQ" during this time at Ramsgate?  

It's our fervent hope this Lottery grant will change the tide of fortune for "Medway Queen" and there will be now a renewed and dynamic initiative to save this historically important ship.  

PJ
Victoria, BC Canada

[PJ]

For those who might not be familiar with "Medway Queen's" heroic war record, here is a page copied directly from the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships Web site.

 
Few ships associated with Dunkirk have fought so hard and escaped destruction so tenaciously and for so long as the Medway Queen. Even today, she is still far from secure and is in need of all the help that her many admirers and well-wishers can muster.

She started life in 1924 at Ailsa's Yard in Troon, Scotland and was one of the finest and most luxurious paddle steamers built to provide excursions in the Thames and Medway Estuaries. She was much loved by the thousands who sailed in her until, in 1939, she was called up to serve with the Navy as part of the l0th Minesweeping Flotilla. She was originally designed to carry almost a thousand passengers at 15 knots.

H.M.S. Medway Queen's Naval service started in the bitter winter of 1939, yet her new crew came to love her and were soon welded into an efficient fighting force as part of the Dover Patrol. On 28th May 1940, they were anchored on the South coast spotting enemy aircraft laying mines when she was ordered to proceed to the beaches of Dunkirk. She was thus one of the first ships to arrive there and she quickly filled up with men to her full capacity. By 0700 she was on her way back to Dover when she was attacked by German planes and her machine-guns accounted for one German fighter. The Brighton Belle, which was nearby, was less fortunate. She drifted over a submerged wreck, tore open her bottom and sank. So the Medway Queen picked up as many of her survivors as she could and added them to her own load.

On the second day, by 1700, the Medway Queen was once again steaming for Dunkirk from Dover under her Captain, Lieut. A.T. Cook RNR with J..D. Graves RNR as her First Lieutenant. They entered the harbour of Dunkirk amid heavy gunfire. The oil tanks were ablaze by then and there was wreckage everywhere. Scaling ladders were used to enable troops to come down to the ship from the mole high above them and she was soon full again. Lieut. Jolly, her navigator throughout the operation, quickly got her under way. They slipped over the minefields to save time, relying on their shallow draught to avoid destruction. As night fell, her crew devised ingenious ways to subdue the phosphorescence in the water with oil, to escape enemy detection. This time they returned to Ramsgate and arrived between 1000 and 1100. Once more, they refuelled and took on all the stores that they could carry. Now they went back alternately to the harbour and the beaches of Dunkirk. On the beaches, they had to use their motorised dinghy to bring the troops out. Once aboard, the men were taken care of by the Medway Queen's extraordinary cook, Thomas Russell who, with his assistant 'Sec' (his full name is not recorded), took pride in caring for everyone of the soldiers with meals and hot drinks.

Engineer Davis was in charge of the Medway Queen's engines and kept them running, never leaving his post, from 27th May until 4th June when they made the last of their seven runs to Dunkirk. In all, the Medway Queen is credited with saving 7,000 men and some of them still remember their rescue with great emotion. John Howarth from Rochester recalls how he was in the middle of the Channel surrounded by bodies and almost resigned to death when, over the horizon, came the Medway Queen on her way back to England, crammed with troops. He could hardly believe his luck when the ship stopped long enough to pick him up!

A French soldier, Paul Dervilers who, in 1989 was 87 years old, also recalled his rescue:- "I was on the beach walking up the coast towards Belgium when I saw some Englishmen getting into a dinghy and I joined ten of them who tried to get aboard. But the dinghy became waterlogged. We all began bailing hopelessly with our helmets. Fortunately, half-way to an off-lying ship, we picked up an abandoned little skiff in good shape and we got into it. It was 2300 when we climbed up the ladder of the Medway Queen."

After Dunkirk, the Medway Queen was refitted in Chatham Dockyard and continued her service in the Navy until the end of the war. In 1947 she was refitted at Thornycrofts at Southampton and became a pleasure steamer once more. In 1953 she followed the Royal Yacht Britannia through the lines of assembled ships at the Spithead Coronation Review.

(SNIP)

Heroism in time of war is recognised but briefly. Her skipper, Lieut. Thomas Cook RNR, and her First Officer, Sub-Lt. Graves RNR, received the DSC. Two of her Petty Officers, Crossley and MacAlister and Seaman Olly received the DSM. Two of her crew were Mentioned in Despatches, but the ship which rescued 7,000 soldiers now barely survives through the private charity and dedication of the Medway Queen Preservation Society.

________________________________________________________-

The article also mentions "There may be a chance to display the ship in the World Naval Base (Chatham Dockyard) where she could be a museum and memorial to all the heroism of the Dunkirk evacuation, negotiations are in progress."

Has anything further ever come of this, Len?

PJ
Victoria, BC Canada

[lenknight]

Hello PJ,
Thanks for input re Medway Queen; I will try to answer you questions, albeit some of this has been passed on before in many areas. My input at times as ever is that ‘Apathy’ remains supreme in the UK, and until this change, little is going to happen.
However, we have engaged a reputable surveyor, as used by many of the larger historic ships projects, he has already given the ship the ‘Once Over’ recently, so he and his team will hopefully start shortly in detail. How long this and the final report will take I have no idea at present,
The objective is with a smaller grant in the region of one to two million pounds we will be able to restore just the hull of the ship, like a steel cocoon, which will enable other work to be carried out at a later date, in a dry stable condition. Whatever it will mean transporting the ship on a pontoon of some sort, or at last resort a ‘New Build’ from the existing framework.
Sadly with the facilities in the UK disappearing fast for such work, this may end up overseas to accomplice.
Museums to Dunkirk, none as far as I know, alone the paddlers and little ships involved, busying spending money on the ‘Dome’ and still so. Now we have the ‘Olympics’ which will in the background siphon funds away from its just cause.
Raising funds at the anniversary of Dunkirk, we have for twenty years been doing just that. But all are getting older and more feeble, little help if any from the younger generation, Dunkirk! What’s that?
Do you get my drift? I now have health problems, stopping me from more involvement, like many of our ageing active members.
It is now down to the future generations to keep up this momentum, sadly I don’t think so.
Regards Len Knight, MQPS