Mona's Queen (1934)

Career
Name:	Mona's Queen
Owner:	1934-1940: Isle of Man Steam Packet Company
Operator:	1934-1940: Isle of Man Steam Packet Company
Port of registry:	Douglas, Isle of Man.
Builder:	Cammell Laird, Birkenhead
Cost:	£201,250
Yard number:	145308
Launched:	1934
Maiden voyage:	1934
Out of service:	May, 1940
Fate:	Sunk at Dunkirk, May 29, 1940.
Status:	War Grave.
General characteristics
Type:	Passenger Steamer
Tonnage:	2,756 gross register tons (GRT)
Length:	337'
Beam:	48'
Draught:	17'
Installed power:	8,500 horsepower
Speed:	22 knots
Capacity:	2,486 passengers
Crew:	83

TSS Mona's Queen (III) was a ship built for the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company in 1934, and was the third vessel in the Company's history to bear the name. Sadly her life proved short, and she was lost when she struck a mine off Dunkirk on May 29, 1940.

Construction

Mona's Queen was built by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead in 1934, at a cost of £201,250. The vessel displaced a tonnage of 2,756; had a depth of 17 feet (5.2 m); a length of 337 feet (103 m); beam of 48 feet (15 m) and a speed of 22 knots. She was certified for 2,486 passengers and a crew of 83.

She was driven by two single-reduction geared turbines and produced 8,500 brake horsepower; the first of the Company's ships to have water tube boilers, taking up less room than the scotch boilers previously used.

Appearance

Mona's Queen was launched painted with a white hull over green. This was a summer colour scheme adopted by the Company in the 1930s, and was also applied to her sisters Lady of Mann (I) and Ben-my-Chree (IV).

She was an elegant ship, straight of stem and with an elliptical stern. Her passenger accommodation was advanced for its day with 20 cabins.

Mona's Queen was the leader of the last three ships, all twin-screw, geared turbines, to be built for the Company before the Second World War. The Fenella (II) and Tynwald (IV) followed her into service in 1937. All three were lost during the war.

War service and loss

Mona's Queen was requisitioned as a personnel vessel on the day war broke out. As such, she remained a merchantman with a Steam Packet Captain and crew. She spent most of May 1940 evacuating refugees from Dutch and French ports as the massive German advance swept forward to the Channel. On May 22, she left Boulogne for Dover with 2,000 British troops embarked.

Her record during the Dunkirk evacuation was short. She started under the command of Captain R. Duggan and arrived back in Dover during the night of May 27 with 1,200 troops. She was shelled by shore guns off the French coast the next day, but she escaped damage. On May 29 the troops on the Dunkirk beaches were short of drinking water, so the Mona's Queen loaded water canisters and sailed from Dover in the early morning. She hit a mine off Dunkirk harbour at 5.30am, and sank in two minutes. Captain A. Holkman, who had taken over as Master, and 31 members of the crew were picked up by destroyers. Twenty-four of the crew were lost. All but ten of them had worked in the engine room. They included the Chief and Second Engineer. Seventeen of the dead were from the Isle of Man.

Memorial

To mark the seventieth anniversary of her sinking, it was decided that Mona's Queen's starboard anchor was to be raised and returned to the Isle of Man to form the centre-piece of a permanent memorial. The anchor had become detached during the sinking, and therefore did not form part of the War Grave. Her anchor was raised by a French salvage vessel, and was shown live on BBC television. There was a 12-gun salute from HMS Monmouth as a crane lifted the anchor of Mona's Queen from the seabed. The restored anchor from Mona's Queen will be sited at Kallow Point in Port St Mary.

Trivia

Mona's Queen can be seen berthed alongside the Prince's Landing Stage in Liverpool, about to be boarded by George Formby in the 1935 film No Limit.

References