HMS Melton

HMS Melton was a Racecourse-class minesweeper of the Royal Navy. The Racecourse class comprised 32 paddlewheel coastal minesweeping sloops.

History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Melton
Namesake	Melton Racecourse, Leicestershire
Builder	William Hamilton & Company
Launched	March 1916
Fate	Sold into civilian service in 1927
United Kingdom
Name	Queen of Thanet
Owner	New Medway Steam Packet Co.
Acquired	1929
Fate	Requisitioned by Admiralty 1939
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Queen of Thanet
Commissioned	1939
Decommissioned	1946
Fate	Released back to civilian service
United Kingdom
Name	Queen of Thanet (1946 - 1949) Solent Queen (1949 - 1951)
Owner	New Medway Steam Packet Co. Red Funnel
Fate	Scrapped after fire in 1951
General characteristics
Class & type	Racecourse-class minesweeper
Displacement	810 long tons (823 t)
Length	235 ft (72 m)
Beam	29 ft (8.8 m) 58 ft (18 m) at the paddles
Draught	6.75–7 ft (2.06–2.13 m)
Propulsion	Inclined compound. Cylindrical return tube. 1,400 hp.
Speed	15 knots (17 mph; 28 km/h)
Range	156 tons coal
Complement	50–52 men
Armament	2 × 12-pounder guns

She returned to active service in World War II as HMS Queen of Thanet (J30).

History

Great War

Built by William Hamilton & Company in Port Glasgow, Scotland, Melton was launched in March 1916 with the pennant number 898. As built she was equipped to operate two seaplanes but never did so. For the rest of World War I she served with the Auxiliary Patrol. Post-war she was transferred to the Mine Clearance Service.^[1]

Between the wars

Melton was sold to Hughes Bolckow in 1927. She was bought by The New Medway Steam Packet Company in 1929 and converted for excursion work on the River Medway and River Thames. She was renamed Queen of Thanet. For the next twelve years she could be found working from Sheerness and Southend. Regular excursions took her to Gravesend, Margate, Clacton and Dover as well as across the English Channel to Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk.^[2]

World War II

In September 1939 she was requisitioned by the Admiralty for minesweeping duties once more and commissioned as HMS Queen of Thanet, pennant number J30.^[3] In May 1940 she took part in the Dunkirk evacuation rescuing 4,000 men in four trips. Of that number, 2,000 were transferred from the ex-LNER steamer Prague, after the latter had been damaged by near misses from shells and dive bombers off Gravelines.^[4] For Operation Overlord in June 1944 she was stationed at Selsey as the Mulberry Despatch Control Ship. After the war she was returned in 1946 to her owners to recommence excursion work around the Thames Estuary.

Post War

In January 1949 she was sold to Red Funnel and transferred to Southampton. After refitting at Thorneycroft's yard at Northam she was commissioned in the spring as the company's second Solent Queen. For the next two years she operated excursions from Southampton in the summer. In June 1951 while slipped for survey and repair, she caught fire and was written off as a constructive loss.^[5] She was scrapped by Dover Industries at Dover Eastern Docks in 1951.^[6]