Name Sheppey Queen

Built in 1946, by the Sittingbourne Ship building Company, originally named SILVER QUEEN, she was registered as a wooden pleasure yacht.  Built to replace two boats that went to Dunkirk and did not return, SHEPPEY QUEEN was designed and owned by Nick Carter.  Her design is inspired by the Harbour Defence Motor Launches, also built at Milton creek. She is larch on oak, with three sealed bulkheads, built to be strong.  SILVER QUEEN was licensed to carry 120 people, and working of Sheerness Beach, she  offered pleasure trips around the Isle of Sheppey and  to see "the wreck”, MV Richard Montgomery.  As people started to travel further afield, the pleasure boating business became less viable, and she was offered for sale.

In 1948 she was bought by two brothers, Scottish boat builders, William Bald Ferguson of Rhumore, Kilmun, county of Argyll, & James Ferguson, of Glencreran, Kilmun, county of Argyll. The brothers sailed her up the East Coast of England, through the Caledonian Canal towards Holy Loch, Hunters Quay and Dunoon, which was to be her home for ten years. In Scotland, she was  licensed to carry up to 150 passengers and made extensive journeys, along the Clyde and around the neighbouring Scottish Islands. Her name change to SHEPPEY QUEEN came about when it was discovered that there was another Silver Queen. They called her SHEPPEY QUEEN, after the island from whence she came, utilising the big brass S and Q on the funnel. 

In 1958 she was sold to Henry Silvanus Austin Johns, oyster merchant from Falmouth and subsequently sold to Ralph Cravath Thomas, a farmer from St. Marys, Isles of Scilly in 1959.

In 1960  she was sold again to Ronald Frank Ricketts, marine engineer, Bexleyheath, Kent. He sold her to his company RG Passenger Launches, and for 20 years
 SHEPPEY QUEEN operated as  the Ford Ferry, carrying workers across the Thames, from Erith to Dagenham. Licensed to carry 150 people, she worked day and night. One passenger told me, “ in winter it was so cold, we would huddle around the funnel, or squeeze in down below”.

In 1980  she was bought by Jocelyn Ruth Purdy, a housewife, Harley Street, London.

1984 saw Wendy Byrd, of Salterns Quay, Yarmouth, Isle of Wight purchase SHEPPEY QUEEN. They lived on board as a family and for four years, the Byrd family worked Sheppey Queen as a passenger ferry, licensed to carry 12 people. They offered trips to the Needles.

In 1988 she was purchased by Doreen Patricia Johnson, a wages clerk from Manchester, and Helen Patricia Whitefoot, house wife from Winchester, who owned her for three months, then sold her  to Ivan Max Ringrose, a gentleman, of Fotherby, Nr. Loith, Lincolnshire in 1988.

1989 and SHEPPEY QUEEN was in a sorry state. She was discovered in Southampton, for sale and neglected. She was bought by Rear Admiral Terence Loughran and his daughter Rebecca Loughran, a naval family from London. For a year, they worked hard and brought her back to ship shape, then sailed her from Southampton to London.

2000 saw the latest owner falling in love with SHEPPEY QUEEN. Further restoration and dreams, have seen new engines put in the boat, the hull wooded, and planks needing repair tended to, by a master shipwright. She was dry docked and surveyed every five years. Restored somewhat, to her former glory,  she is mechanically sound, and her hull is well pickled and in good shape.  During these years, SHEPPEY QUEEN has journeyed from London to Faversham, and has settled back into her home waters. She is now looking for a new owner. She has the capacity to work as a ferry boat, and a coastal cruising vessel. She offers comfortable and characterful living facilities, including a bespoke handmade wooden bath!