History
United Kingdom
Name	HMSMelton
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 byAdmiralty 1939
United Kingdom
Name	HMSQueen 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-classminesweeper
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	15knots (17 mph; 28 km/h)
Range	156 tons coal
Complement	50–52 men
Armament	2 ×12-pounder guns

HMSMelton was aRacecourse-classminesweeper of theRoyal Navy. The Racecourse class comprised 32 paddlewheel coastalminesweepingsloops.

She returned to active service inWorld War II asHMSQueen of Thanet (J30).

Built byWilliam Hamilton & Company inPort Glasgow, Scotland,Melton was launched in March 1916 with thepennant number 898. As built she was equipped to operate two seaplanes but never did so. For the rest ofWorld War I she served with theAuxiliary Patrol. Post-war she was transferred to the Mine Clearance Service.^[1]

Melton was sold toHughes Bolckow in 1927. She was bought by The New Medway Steam Packet Company in 1929 and converted for excursion work on theRiver Medway andRiver Thames. She was renamedQueen of Thanet. For the next twelve years she could be found working fromSheerness andSouthend. Regular excursions took her toGravesend,Margate,Clacton andDover as well as across theEnglish Channel toCalais,Boulogne andDunkirk.^[2]

In September 1939 she was requisitioned by theAdmiralty for minesweeping duties once more and commissioned as HMSQueen of Thanet, pennant number J30.^[3] In May 1940 she took part in theDunkirk evacuation rescuing 4,000 men in four trips. Of that number, 2,000 were transferred from the ex-LNER steamerPrague, after the latter had been damaged by near misses from shells and dive bombers offGravelines.^[4] ForOperation Overlord in June 1944 she was stationed atSelsey as theMulberry Despatch Control Ship. After the war she was returned in 1946 to her owners to recommence excursion work around the Thames Estuary.

In January 1949 she was sold toRed Funnel and transferred toSouthampton. After refitting atThorneycroft's yard at Northam she was commissioned in the spring as the company's secondSolent 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 atDover Eastern Docks in 1951.^[6]

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969].Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing.ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.OCLC 67375475.

• Details of service asQueen of Thanet

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