''Queen of the Isles'' was a

passenger ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

built for the

Isles of Scilly Steamship Company The Isles of Scilly Steamship Company (ISSC) operates the principal shipping service from Penzance, in Cornwall, to the Isles of Scilly, located to the southwest. It provides a year-round cargo service together with a seasonal passenger serv ...

in 1964 by

Charles Hill & Sons Charles Hill & Sons was a major shipbuilder based in Bristol, England, during the 19th and 20th centuries. Background Established in 1845 from the company Hilhouse, they specialised mainly in merchant and commercial ships, but also undertook the ...

. She was designed to carry passengers and cargo between

Penzance Penzance ( ; kw, Pennsans) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, UK, to the offshore

Isles of Scilly The Isles of Scilly (; kw, Syllan, ', or ) is an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, is the most southerly point in Britain, being over further south than the most southerly point of the ...

, complementing the service provided by the other company ship '' Scillonian''. 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, including with

P & A Campbell P & A Campbell was a shipping company based in Bristol which operated steamship services in the Bristol Channel between 1893 and 1979. History In the early 19th century, steamships were introduced to Europe with Clyde steamer sailings which ...

, before selling her in 1970. From 1970 to 1982 she operated as ''Olovaha'' in

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

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 The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

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

Honiara Honiara () is the capital and largest city of Solomon Islands, situated on the northwestern coast of Guadalcanal. , it had a population of 92,344 people. The city is served by Honiara International Airport and the seaport of Point Cruz, and lie ...

, in the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

around 2001. In 2010 the hull was cut away to the waterline, the remainder still left there.

References

External links

* Ferries of the United Kingdom Water transport in Cornwall Transport in the Isles of Scilly 1964 ships Ships built in Bristol {{cornwall-stub