The Queen of the Isles was a ferry built for the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company in 1964 by Charles Hill & Sons

Charles Hill & Sons

Charles Hill & Sons was a major shipbuilder based in Bristol, England, during the 19th and 20th centuries. Established in 1845, they specialised mainly in merchant and commercial ships, but also undertook the build of warships and governmental vessels especially during the First and Second World...

. She was designed to carry passengers and cargo between Penzance

Penzance

Penzance is a town, civil parish, and port in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is approximately 75 miles west of Plymouth and 300 miles west-southwest of London...

, Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, UK, to the offshore Isles of Scilly

Isles of Scilly

The Isles of Scilly form an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain. The islands have had a unitary authority council since 1890, and are separate from the Cornwall unitary authority, but some services are combined with Cornwall and the islands are still part...

, complementing the service provided by the other company ship Scillonian

Scillonian (1955)

The TSMV Scillonian was a passenger ferry built for the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company in 1955 by John I. Thornycroft & Company of Woolston, Southampton...

. After running her for the service between Penzance and Scilly from 1964 to 1966, the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company put Queen of the Isles on a range of brief charters before selling her in 1970.

From 1970 to 1982 she operated as Olovaha in Tonga

Tonga

Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...

 and from 1982 to 1987 as Gulf Explorer as a casino ship in Australian waters. She was renamed Queen of the Isles II in 1987 when cruising off the Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef is the world'slargest reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately...

. Renamed Island Princess in 1992 and Western Queen in 1994, she ran aground at Ranadi beach, Honiara

Honiara

Honiara, population 49,107 , 78,190 , is the capital of the Solomon Islands and of Guadalcanal Province, although it is a separately administered town...

, in the Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...

around 2001, where she remains to this day, rusting away.

External links

• www.queenoftheisles.com A tribute page to Queen of the Isles, her history and crew
• www.simplonpc.co.uk Short history of the Scilly ferry service with photographs of the Queen of the Isles