Hello - I am a brand new member from Granton, Edinburgh - on the south shore of the Firth of Forth. 

I am webmaster for Granton History Group, and have become interested both because of the train ferries that operated across the Forth to Burntisland from 1850 to 1890 and which were all paddle steamers, and more recently minesweepers based here in World War II.

We were recently given a set of photographs taken by an officer on the Queen of Thanet, which are available here:

http://www.grantonhistory.org/ships_and_boats/queen_of_thanet_intro.htm

If anyone can add to the information we would be very pleased to find out more.

Kind regards

David King
david@grantonhistory.org

Welcome to Paddleducks David, good to have you with us.

Sadly I can't help with info on the ships your looking for, but hopefully someone might be able to in the near future...

Regards
Eddy

Queen of Thanet was built as one of the Ascot or racecourse class of paddle minesweepers in 1916 as HMS Melton. She and her sister HMS Atherstone were purchased by the New Medway Steam Packet Co in 1927 and converted for passenger use, Atherstone becoming Queen of Kent.
They were used on trips from Chatham, Southend and Margate to Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk, also sailing to Dover in 1930 and from Clacton to Calais in 1935.
Both were sold to Red Funnel in 1949 becoming Solent Queen and Lorna Doone respectively. The latter was withdrawn after the 1951 season and scraped the following year, but Solent Queen, ex Queen of Thanet, was gutted by fire on 22 June 1951, and was not repaired.
Surprisingly they were the only two of that class which were converted for civilian use.
Both were built by William Hamilton & Co in Port Glasgow

David , If you can obtain a copy of A DANGEROUS OCCUPATION, A Story of Paddle Minesweepers in the First World War, by CHRIS COLLARD. Published by Wheelhouse Books. I S B N  number  0-9534275-1-x.  Although  it is primarily about P&A Campbell's White funnel ships war time service. The Ascot class are covered. There development from the Glen Usk. There short comings and the reason few entered civilian service. Your local library should be able to help, even if you have to pay to obtain it out of area I think you will fine it very interesting. R.G.Y.