QUEEN OF THANET

Important context

These are vessels recorded as having some association or possible involvement with Operation Dynamo. This is not a definitive list of participating ships, and inclusion does not establish that a vessel reached Dunkirk, evacuated personnel or otherwise took part. A source record may exist because a claim was investigated, qualified or rejected; for example, an Orde entry may expressly state that the vessel did not participate. Always review the underlying records and source notes before drawing a conclusion.

The archive and its metadata are still being compiled and are presented as a work in progress. Entries may be incomplete, change as additional material is processed or appear in more than one source record.

Historic logs, handwritten documents, later indexes and transcriptions may contain spelling or identification differences. For example, NIAIAD ERRANT, MAID ERRANT and NAIAD ERRANT refer to the same vessel under variant spellings. Search cautiously, try likely variants and check for multiple records before drawing conclusions.

Cross-collection links and record counts should be treated as candidate matches rather than confirmed vessel identities. Matching may involve case and punctuation normalisation, partial-name or OCR text matches, aliases and associated metadata. A Roman-numeral suffix such as I, II, III, IV or V may be omitted, separated or mistranscribed, causing a base name to match a different numbered vessel. With multi-word names, a candidate may also be returned because only one distinctive word matched. Verify the complete name and numeral against vessel type, dimensions, builder, ownership, dates and the underlying source before merging or relying on records.

Also known as

ORDE: 6 · SCSL: 0 · Lloyd’s: 0 · Red List: 18

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Wikipedia vessel details

Secondary-source table data; verify against primary records where available.

Source table

Name: HMS Queen of Thanet (J30)
Pennant number: J30
Flag: Royal Navy
Description: Paddle minesweeper
Built: 1916
Tonnage: 792
Commanding officer: A/T/Cdr. Sidney Peck Herival, RNVR (S.O.)
Trips to Dunkirk: 3
Troops landed: 2,500
Notes: Not stated

Linked vessel page

Dunkirk-related passages from the linked page

Melton was sold to Hughes Bolckow 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 across the English Channel to Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk.[2] In September 1939 she was requisitioned by the Admiralty for minesweeping duties once more and commissioned as HMS Queen of Thanet, pennant number J30.[3] 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.[4] 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. ↑ Divine, David (1959). The Nine Days of Dunkirk. Clerkenwell: Pan Books.

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ORDE Registry

6 records

6 potential matching records have been identified.

These records may contain vessel particulars, reported movements, participation assessments, named personnel and source references. A match does not by itself prove that the vessel participated in Operation Dynamo.

“Potential match” means a candidate returned by one or more indexing rules; it is not necessarily an exact identity match. Depending on the source, matching may use a normalised vessel name, a partial text or OCR hit, an alias, or related metadata. Roman-numeral suffixes such as I, II, III, IV and V may be absent, misread or separated from the base name, so records for similarly named vessels can be grouped incorrectly. Multi-word names can also produce candidates where only one significant word matches. Confirm the full name, numeral, vessel type, dimensions, builder, ownership, dates and source context before treating two records as the same vessel.

We are compiling and checking transcriptions, metadata, vessel-name matches, source references and reuse permissions before publishing further detail. This work helps prevent incomplete OCR, historic spelling variations or unverified associations from being presented as established fact.

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Small Craft Service List

0 records

0 potential matching records have currently been identified.

Further indexing may identify service-list entries, vessel metadata, source-page references and protected full-size document images. The absence of a current match does not establish that no relevant source exists.

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No Small Craft records.

Red List (1939–40) — OCR

18 records

18 potential matching records have been identified.

These records may contain OCR text matches, source files, page references and digitised page imagery. A match does not by itself prove that the vessel participated in Operation Dynamo.

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Ship Details

These details have been aggregated from multiple sources and may include contemporary records, later recollections, claims or assertions for which no corroborating evidence has been identified. Inclusion does not establish that any account or assertion is accurate. The information may be incomplete, out of date, disputed or incorrect and should be checked against the underlying source records and independent evidence before being relied upon.

No additional ship details available.

Lloyd’s Yacht Register (1939)

Source: Lloyd’s Register Foundation, Heritage & Education Centre, Lloyd’s Register of Yachts 1939, digitised via Internet Archive. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Images have been converted, resized and watermarked for web display; machine-generated table OCR has been added.

No Lloyd’s records.

Operation Dynamo Map — Movement Logs

1 log View QUEEN OF THANET on map →

Movements recorded for QUEEN OF THANET during the evacuation period, as plotted on the Operation Dynamo map.

Departed	Route	Arrived	Troops	Notes	Source
—	Dunkirk	—	—	Stationary Location recorded; complete dated movement unavailable	NMM 940.542.1 1940 Orde vol ii, page 449

User Contributed Collection

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