page_title: SS Mona's Queen (1934)
section_title: Dunkirk
hierarchical_section_title: SS Mona's Queen (1934) / War service / Dunkirk
caption_attribution_description: English: Dunkirk 1940 The Isle of Man steam ferry SS Mona's Queen sinking after striking a mine off Dunkirk, 29 May 1940.
context_page_description: TSS Mona's Queen (III) No. 145308, was a ship built for the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company in 1934. The steamer, which was the third vessel in the company's history to bear the name, was one of five ships to be specially commissioned by the company between 1927 and 1937. They were replacements for the various second-hand steamers that had been purchased to replace the company's losses during the First World War. However, the life of the Mona's Queen proved to be short: six years after being launched she was sunk by a sea mine during the Dunkirk evacuation on 29 May 1940.
context_section_description: Mona's Queen was one of the first vessels to make a successful round trip during the Dunkirk evacuation. Under the command of Captain Radcliffe Duggan, she arrived back in Dover during the night of 27 May with 1,200 troops. The next day the ship returned to sea and was shelled off the French coast by shore guns but escaped damage.
  Captain Duggan was temporarily replaced by Capt. Holkham following which in the early hours of 29 May, the Mona's Queen set sail for Dunkirk from Dover loaded with water canisters because troops on the Dunkirk beaches were short of drinking water. However, the ship struck a magnetic sea mine outside Dunkirk harbour at 5:30am. The Mona's Queen sank in two minutes.
  Captain Archibald Holkham, who had taken over as Master, and 31 members of the crew were picked up by destroyers. Twenty-four of the crew were lost. Of the crew who died, 14 worked in the engine room. They included the Chief and Second Engineer. Seventeen of the dead were from the Isle of Man. The wreck is designated as a war grave.
caption: Mona's Queen pictured shortly after she struck a mine on the approach to Dunkirk, 29 May 1940.
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