The Queen was built in 1903 at the William Denny Brothers yard, Dunbarton. She went into service for the SE&C Railway Co. on the Folkestone to Calais route. She was the first steamer on the cross-channel run to be fitted with the new turbine engines. She was fast and comfortable, and could cross the Channel in less than 1 hour and during WW1 was used to move troops from the UK to France.
She was returning from Boulogne to Folkstone with just mail on-board on the night of the 26 October 1916 (Troops were not carried at night) when she got in the middle of a raid by German Destroyers on the Dover Patrol.
The raid had already resulted in the sinking of the old Destroyer HMS Flirt and 7 Drifters patrolling the Barrage, when the Germans came across The Queen. Her crew were ordered to abandon ship and then the Germans sunk her by either torpedo or by placing charges in her, with no loss of life
Diving: The Queen is upright and quite intact in a max depth of 30m. She is quite settled into the seabed with a row of empty portholes above this. The cabins on her deck are still intact and can be looked into. There is a large bank of sand off to the north of her but the south side is very clear.There is a lot of damage and a large hole at the stern end and you can penetrate into the engine room area around here. A very nice dive subject to poor viz off the South Goodwin’s.
