Review of the Fleet at Spithead by the Queen, 24th August 1878

A WWII ship's bell from the Royal Navy minesweeper HMS Queen of Thanet, dated 1941. Pendant number J-30. Diameter: 27cm - 10 ½ inches. Height: 28 cm - 11 inches. HMS Queen of Thanet (J30), formerly HMS Melton, was a Racecourse-class minesweeper of the Royal Navy. She was built by William Hamilton & Company in Port Glasgow, Scotland. Melton was launched in March 1916 with the pennant number 898. During World War I she served with the Auxiliary Patrol. Post-war she was transferred to the Mine Clearance Service. Between the wars Melton was sold to Hughes Bolckow Shipbreaking Co in 1927. She was bought by The New Medway Steam Packet Company in 1929 and converted for excursion work on the River Medway and River Thames. She was renamed Queen of Thanet. For the next twelve years she could be found working from Sheerness and Southend. Regular excursions took her to Gravesend, Margate, Clacton and Dover as well as cross-channel voyages to Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk. In September 1939 she was requisitioned by the Admiralty for minesweeping duties once more and commissioned as HMS Queen of Thanet, pennant number J30. In May 1940 she took part in the Dunkirk evacuation rescuing 4,000 men in four trips. Of that number, 2,000 were transferred from the ex-LNER steamer Prague, after the latter had been damaged by near misses from shells and dive bombers off Gravelines. For Operation Overlord in June 1944 she was stationed at Selsey as the Mulberry Despatch Control Ship. After the war she was returned in 1946 to her owners to recommence excursion work around the Thames Estuary. In January 1949 she was sold to Red Funnel and transferred to Southampton. After refitting at Thorneycroft's yard at Northam she was commissioned in the spring as the company's second Solent Queen. For the next two years she operated excursions from Southampton in the summer. In June 1951 while slipped for survey and repair, she caught fire and was written off as a constructive loss. She was scrapped by Dover Industries Ltd at Dover Eastern Docks in 1951 Literature on HMS Queen of Thanet see: Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships...

A Victorian framed print of "PADDLE WHEELS & SCREW PROPELLERS" by Day and Son, Lithographers to the Queen. Plate from The Modern System of Naval...

3 ½ inch gauge model of the 4-6-0 steam locomotive the Black Knight. Circa 1955. Mounted on a display track. Length of Locomotive: 31 inches - 79 cm. Length of Tender: 19 inches -...

Bronze ship's steering helm with wheel by the Benson Electric Company, Superior, Wisconsin. Dated: JAN 1930 The helm indicates rudder angles with the moving pointer, lit with two ...

1st Battalion Virginia Infantry 39th Battalion Virginia Cavalry 24th Battalion Virginia Partisan Rangers by Robert J. Driver and Kevin C. Ruffner. H. E. Howard, Lynchburg VA, 1996. 1...

Antique print titled 'Vaisseau Royal de l'Angleterre, Konincklyke Schip van Engeland'. Beautiful hand-coloured engraving of the Royal Flagship of the English Fleet. Originally publis...

Antique map titled 'Kaart van de Golf van Tomini of Gorontalo.' (Map of the Gulf of Tomini or Gorontalo.) This map shows the Gulf of Tomini near the Island of Sulawesi, Indonesia. Wi...

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring: The Paris Review 1982-1990 (set of 2): Vintage editions of The Paris Review, with one uniquely featuring brilliant Keith Haring 1982 cover art &...