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

Cammell Laird

Cammell Laird, one of the most famous names in British shipbuilding during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, came about following the merger of Laird, Son & Co. of Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co. of Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth century.- Founding of the business :The Company...

 at Birkenhead

Birkenhead

Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...

 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 (102.7 m); beam of 48 feet (14.6 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

Dover

Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...

 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 Queens starboard anchor was to be raised and returned to the Isle of Man

Isle of Man

The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...

 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

HMS Monmouth (F235)

HMS Monmouth is the sixth Type 23 frigate of the Royal Navy. She is the seventh ship to bear the name and was launched by Lady Eaton in 1991, being commissioned two years later....

 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

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, about to be boarded by George Formby

George Formby

George Formby, OBE , born George Hoy Booth, was a British comedy actor, singer-songwriter, and comedian. He sang light, comical songs, accompanying himself on the banjo ukulele or banjolele...

 in the 1935 film No Limit.