TSS Mona's Queen III. Traditional Cache
monstermunch: Archiving as always getting washed away.
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TSS Mona's Queen (III) was a ship built for the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company in 1934, and was the third vessel in the Company's history to bear the name. Sadly her life proved short, and she was lost when she struck a mine off Dunkirk on May 29, 1940.
Please note that the cache is not placed at the Memorial.
Her record during the Dunkirk evacuation was short. She started under the command of Captain R. Duggan and arrived back in Dover during the night of May 27 with 1,200 troops. She was shelled by shore guns off the French coast the next day, but she escaped damage. On May 29 the troops on the Dunkirk beaches were short of drinking water, so the Mona's Queen loaded water canisters and sailed from Dover in the early morning. She hit a mine off Dunkirk harbour at 5.30am, and sank in two minutes. Captain A. Holkman, who had taken over as Master, and 31 members of the crew were picked up by destroyers. Twenty-four of the crew were lost. All but ten of them had worked in the engine room. They included the Chief and Second Engineer. Seventeen of the dead were from the Isle of Man.
Operation Dynamo, whilst widely regarded as the Steam Packet's 'finest hour', also saw its blackest day. Three vessels were lost from the fleet on May 29, King Orry (III), Fenella (II) and Mona's Queen.
To mark the seventieth anniversary of her sinking, it was decided that Mona's Queen's starboard anchor was to be raised and returned to the Isle of Man to form the centre-piece of a permanent memorial. The anchor had become detached during the sinking, and therefore did not form part of the War Grave. Her anchor was raised by a French salvage vessel, and was shown live on BBC television. There was a 12-gun salute from HMS Monmouth as a crane lifted the anchor of Mona's Queen from the seabed. The restored anchor from Mona's Queen is now sited at Kallow Point in Port St Mary.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Zntargvp anab. Snpvat frn, haqre gur evtug.
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