Blog Posts

Royal Visit to Medway Queen

6/6/2019

Tuesday 4th June 2019 was the day when Medway Queen received royal recognition when HRH Prince Michael of Kent paid us a visit.

We'll let the photographs speak for themselves..........

Despite rather damp weather the day proved most interesting for His Royal Highness who was welcomed by the Lord Lieutenant of Kent and our President, Admiral Lord West. Music for the day was provided by army musicians from Brompton Barracks, kindly arranged by Brigadier Matthew Bazeley. Prince Michael has an ongoing interest in historic ships and in Dunkirk and was introduced to the MQPS Trustees, the workshop and "Saturday Team" volunteers and numerous other guests. After a short video presentation by Pam Bathurst he toured the ship - as you can see from the pictures showing a real interest in what he was seeing. The day ended with a brief reception and a presentation of a souvenir folder containing the story of Medway Queen and the direction in which we would like the restoration project to develop. This was also given to all guests and participants present.

All Photos courtesy of Emily Moody Photography.
Click below to see Emily's own website

Emily Moody Photography

In terms of future fundraising we have 2 main priorities: In the medium term we hope to raise the funds to enable Medway Queen to attend the Dunkirk 80th Anniversary commemorations in Ramsgate next year. Prince Michael alluded to the event and Medway Queen’s participation when he visited. We will need around £20K to meet the anticipated towage and insurance costs.

For the longer term we must start raising funds to get the ship back into steam, ideally by July 2024; the centenary of her first sailing. This is a tall order but we do have five years to complete the project.

Support our restoration

National Grid Community Day

24/5/2019

Welcome to a National Grid - Grain LNG - Community Day on board PS Medway Queen.
The photos showing progress made are arriving here faster than I can get them on the website! Absolutely fantastic.

Thanks to a team of volunteers from the National Grid - Grain LNG Medway Queen has received a much needed "wash and brush up". The volunteer task force descended on the ship at 8:30 on Friday 24th May and carried out a wide variety of jobs for us.

The atmosphere was fantastic and supervised and supported by Mick Appleyard, Ron Vant & Judith Maguire, the volunteers were split into small working teams and did a fabulous job of:

Gangway - Jet off plant growth on gangway & apply non-slip tape.
Gangway - Replace ship access gangway netting with scaffold scrim.
Skylights - Clean brass work on sky lights. Sand & stain skylight frames.
Skylight covers - Repair sky light covers and paint.
Quarter deck ladder - Remove poop-deck ladder, clean, sand and stain.
Engine Room - Wire brush piston securing mounts and steel ladder and apply red oxide primer. Clean painted engine parts and control gear of dust & grime.
Sponsons - Jet sponsons clean of plant growth.
Aft promenade - Apply silver paint top coat on aft’ steel plates.
Forward bollards – wire brush and paint.
Bow Rudder wheel mounting – wire brush and paint.
Footpath between carparks – level out designated walkway surface with chippings.

Maurice C, Layla W & Andy H also helped with painting cleaning and ‘gofer-ing’.
Judith Maguire.

The pictures above were all taken in the first couple of hours or so of the day's work!
If you are local come down on Saturday and see the difference for yourself.
With very grateful thanks to all of the Community Team from National Grid at Grain LNG for their hard work, support and enthusiasm and to Judith Maguire for organising the work program and taking the photographs.

Keeping up the Good Work

19/5/2019

The volunteers are still hard at work to make the ship presentable and, more importantly, to get to a condition where we can hire the vessel out as a venue and get more income from it.

The deck lamps were installed as part of the electrical systems upgrade and the main deck in the forward saloon now looks too good to be true!

The deck has been caulked, sanded and sealed to meet hygiene requirements. Further coats of sealant may be needed. When the galley fittings are complete we'll be able to provide teas and snacks on board as an added attraction.

When the current work programme is finished we'll have a smarter visitor attraction, better visitor facilities and an ability to hire the saloons out between times. This will result in the "Saturday Team" becoming much busier and an added administrative workload for the society. We need more volunteers in these roles, especially from those who live locally and can commit to giving up a few hours of their time. GET IN TOUCH PLEASE

Photos: Judith Maguire and Joe Stokes

Wheels of Time

14/5/2019

Click for Medway Queen Visiting Details

Its a while now since PS Medway Queen joined the "Wheels of Time" scheme at the launch event at the Royal Engineers' Museum (below). Our "Saturday Team" reports a good start as we are visited by more local families with a desire to learn more of the ship's history and the part she played as a seaside pleasure steamer and wartime mine-sweeper.

Medway Queen is open to visitors on Saturdays from 11am to 4pm (last admissions at 3pm). Bring the family along to collect the "Wheels of Time" badges and see the progress we are making on the ship's restoration.. Click on the logo (left) for more details of "Wheels of Time".

More work on board

21/4/2019

Continuing progress on board PS Medway Queen.

Work continues on board the ship in the aft saloon and elsewhere. The new deck-house (top left) for the aft companionway will be installed soon, The engine room is being given a tidy up (Top and bottom centre) and temporary decking laid to improve access. In the saloon work has started on the deck head (top right). Among all this activity,"Woody" has found time to make this beautiful coffee table (bottom left) from original deck timber off-cuts and to celebrate his 83rd birthday with some of the other volunteers (bottom right).
All pictures - Judith Maguire

"Happy Birthday Woody!"

<<Previous

Forward>>

Royal Visit to Medway Queen

National Grid Community Day

Keeping up the Good Work

Wheels of Time

More work on board

Archives