The Ryde Queen

The Ryde Queen has a colourful and eventful history. She was warranted by the Southern Railway in 1936, and was commissioned to succeed the Duchess of Norfolk, which ran the Portsmouth to Ryde service. She was built by William Denny and Brothers, who were ship builders from Dumbarton, the project costing ?46,000. She was constructed with a more modern approach, using triple expansion engines for a more graceful structure and journey. The Ryde Queen was launched on 23rd April 1937, and after her maiden voyage in the Firth of Clyde, she made journeys south through the Irish Sea and around Land's End to the Solent. After only two years service, and with a raging War in Europe, the ship became an essential tool for the Royal Navy. They transformed her into a minesweeper, and renamed her HMS Ryde. She assisted the Dover Straits and the North Sea for a further two years. Ryde was then re-fitted as an anti-aircraft ship, transporting an assortment of weapons.

In 1942, the anchored Ryde was used as a guard ship in muddy inlets by the Thames Local Defence Flotilla. This did not last, however, as the ship was transferred to Harwich until 1944. She then joined the Great Invasion Fleet who were gathering for the liberation of Europe from Portsmouth. The Ryde was positioned on the western side of the Mulberry Harbour at Omaha beach from Normandy. Having been damaged by a storm, she then returned to Portsmouth. The Ryde experienced six years of War, and in 1945, returned to the Southern Railway, swapping the guns for holiday trippers. In 1948, the British Railway network took over the service once more, as most of the steamers had been lost to enemy mines in 1941. The new owners replaced the lost ships with new motor vessels.

In 1951, a third ship called Shanklin, was commissioned to join the sister ships Ryde and Sandown. As paddle steamers were no longer in demand at this time, they became relief summer vessels. But Ryde was favoured for expeditions around the Solent, with the famous Sir Alec Rose. In 1968, the Ryde became an Edwardian Gin Palace for Gilbeys Gin, back once again on the Thames. The Ryde's final journey was in 1969, where she sailed back to the Isle of Wight, destined for the breaker's yard. She was saved this indignity by local entrepreneurs AH and CB Riddett, who in 1970, took her to Island Harbour, where she became a nightclub. A fire threatened her in 1977, but she was repaired, remaining popular until the mid 1990s. Since then, Ryde has been left to rot, and lies abandoned at Island Harbour. Talk of rebuilding her has surfaced of late, and hopefully one day, the paddle steamer will be restored to her former glory. Although it is feared that this project may be too late to save this wonderful steamer ship.

Island Harbour
The Harbour is now a Marina, where the deserted Ryde Queen paddle steamer lies. It was once one of the great tide mills called East Medina Mill, originally built in 1790 by William Porter, a baker from Newport. At a time when his workforce were transporting biscuits to Botany Bay, they were ridiculed, which is why the mill changed its name to Botany Bay Mill. When Thomas Porter died, a year after the banks cancelled their funding, the mill was left abandoned.

Funding came from a different source during the reign of George III, where the mill was used for the defence of the country by housing the British Army. It became a residence for German and Prussian soldiers and their families at the end of the 1700s. Unfortunately, seventy people died when a typhoid epidemic hit the area. These tragic figures were buried in mass graves at Whippingham Church. A plaque was put in place by Queen Victoria's daughter in rememberance of these tragic souls.The mill was used as a Prison of War camp for French soldiers during the Napoleonic war. The mill

took on a new approach in 1799, when it was insured by William Roach as a water corn mill under East Medina Mill. It was also used as a storehouse and a kiln, officed by James Roach, who was a merchant and miller. The Roach family held the mill until 1939, when the Borough of Newport acquired it as a waste material store, although its buildings had been damaged by storms in 1930. Disaster then struck in the form of a fire, claiming most of the buildings for the mill, and it was again left abandoned until 1950. The land itself had been used to build aircraft until the mid 1960s, leased by the Southern Aircraft.

Local people then took over the lease from Southern Aircraft from Gatwick. They built a Marina, which was opened in 1965. They acquired two unwanted steamer ships called The Medway Queen, bought in 1965, and The PS Ryde in 1970 by AH and CB Ridett. The steam ships were then transformed into disco venues, and opened by Miss Great Britain, Caroline Moor, who was the girlfriend of George Best at the time.The Medway Queen was accidentally sunk, with only her partial frame exposed on the riverbank. A year later, the Medway Queen Preservation Society took her back to Medway. The Marina still houses the Ryde, with her fate lying in the hands of its owners and the PSPS. The now doomed steamer is helpless to the course of nature, willing for someone to come to her rescue.