The Queen Bee was a wooden carvel Twin-screw steamer built in 1907 at the Rock Davis shipyard at Blackwall, New South Wales, that was wrecked when she sprang a leak whilst carrying coal between Newcastle and Sydney.

The Queen Bee was a classic small wooden carvel twin screw steamer 'sixty-miler', built in 1907 at Blackwall, New South Wales by Mr. Rock Davis, Junior.

to the order of Captain Joseph Weston, for the coastal trade, when taken for her maiden trial the vessel averaged 9.5 knots (17.6 km/h) and proved to be very satisfactory in every detail.

[1] The vessel was a wooden single deck and the bridge ship with 2 masts rigged as a ketch with a round stern it dimensions were:[2] The vessel had a 173.01 gross register tons (GRT) and a 69.74 net register tons (NRT) when first manufactured[2] The Queen Bee was powered by a single British-built steel boiler producing 100 pounds per square inch (689.48 kPa) of steam built in 1903 by Jones, Burton & Co of Liverpool England.

During this period, the world witnessed a number of great maritime strikes, especially in England and Australia, during this period the Queen Bee was often picking up the unprecedented demand for cargo space During March 1908 strike on vessels on the northern rivers, Captain Joseph Weston temporarily entered into the trade with his steamers Sophia Ann and Queen Bee running between Sydney and the Clarence and Richmond rivers.

[4] with items such as the Sophia Ann, loading a cargo at Sydney for the Clarence River with a manifest of over 300 barrels of beer.

The steamer Queen Bee, also owned by Captain Weston, was loading at North Coast ports for Sydney.

[5] Whilst latter in November 1909 it was reported that the collier Queen Bee had arrived from Newcastle during the night running the union barricades with a cargo of coal, estimated at about 180 tons.

[6] During 1910 Joseph Weston, a master mariner, gave evidence at the Wood and Coal Laborers' Wages Board held at the Water Police Court that he had been in the coal trade 25 years and that he was the owner of the Queen Bee and the Wyoming, (at that time, he once owned four vessels).

The vessel reached Broken Bay to inform its owners and was then brought on to Newcastle under her own steam to be put upon the slip at Stockton.

[11] The damage to the Moorabool ran into £1500, and that to the Queen Bee £460 A Marine Court of Inquiry was set up to consider the circumstances surrounding the collision and it found that the Queen Bee was berthing at the Dyke while there was a strong flood tide and a strong westerly wind prevailed.

The bows of the Queen Bee cut the Cumberland's motor launch, which was moored under the stern, into two pieces, and it was a total loss.

Under the charge of Captain A. Gardiner and a crew of eight hands, the Queen Bee left Newcastle on the Friday at 4:40 pm for Sydney with a full cargo of coal.

The shore some miles away was fit fully visible in the fading moonlight, and the party rowed on for Palm Beach.

After being served with hot coffee and their clothes drying alongside the fire, the whole company was picked up by motor car at 5 o'clock, and brought back to Sydney.

'We looked upon the Queen Bee as being quite sound and equal in sea going qualities to anything plying in the coal fleet' said Mr. Saddington.