MEDWAY QUEEN

Came across the Medway Queen paddle boat recently on my to Gillingham pier to do a spot of fishing, it has now got a new/repaired hull paid for by a lottery grant, a lot of work is being carried by volunteers mainly at weekends, took a couple of photos;

 

Do you know is the intention to make this ship a working one again, ie so you can go for a ride in it like Waverley or will it be static only ?

 

The last time I heard the Maritime and Coastguard Agency wouldn't give it a passenger certificate as the hull is completely new but not compliant with modern regulations. I think the Heritage Lottery Fund insisted on a riveted hull and the MCA doesn't accept riveting except for repairs to existing hulls.

 

I believe that she was also a bit tender,(Stability issues) which could have been cured by making her a few inches wider but again the HLF would not permit this

 

Talking to a volunteer who was working on the vessel said that the priority was to get the boat floating again, so that the rest of the can dry out as it was submerged at high tide when moored at the former Chatham naval base. the hull does need further work on it, quite a lot of it apparently, but as he said one step at a time.

 

It is ultimately the intention to run passenger services, but that is in the long term, they seem to have a good volunteer force from what I have seen on a visit there last Sunday, I am sure I recognised a couple of people I have seen volunteering on the Bluebell railway, but the more the merrier.

 

You can come to Dorset and have a ride on Monarch from Easter next year. Smallest of the three working paddle steamers in the UK. If the winter engineering works are successful (which they should be) then performance will be much improved.

 

What really annoys me about the Medway Queen is the publicity claiming that it's the original ship when it patently isn't.

 

Where is the Monarch sailing from!

 

Wareham Quay. http://paddlesteamermonarch.wixsite.com/ps-monarcharch

 

I don't understand what you've been told - the ship was completely rebuilt at Bristol and she is currently floating. As far as all publicity shows, the remaining jobs are the internal fit out, the reconditioning of the engines and the building of new boiler(s).

It's a pity that their publicity has been so poor since the hull rebuild finished - at that time they were doing regular blog type updates along with a webcam showing construction in the boatyard. Now there's very little info on work being carried out.


Keith

 

I have just read this and it seems it does incorporate about 60 -65% of the original and also seems that running it is planned.

http://www.medwayqueen.co.uk/rebuilding-the-hull.html

 

It was not completely rebuilt at Bristol, only the hull was rebuilt, where you got the completely rebuilt from is baffling, yes its floating but its minus its paddles both sides, its engines are out of it, a lot of its decking needs replacing and the hull still needs work on it, hardly completely rebuilt.

 

If I may, I said the ship was rebuilt, leaving the internal fitout, the engines and the boiler to complete - that's another way of saying that the hull and decks were rebuilt! I think most people would see the hull and decks as 'the ship'.
The engines were reinstalled - see http://www.medwayqueen.co.uk/rebuilding-the-hull.html (third picture on top row) which shows the crankshaft being installed.
I have no doubt that there is a considerable amount of work still to do - I mentioned this in my post.

I think the term rebuilt is appropriate. I didn't say she was finished.


Keith