HMT ''Empire Windrush'', originally MV ''Monte Rosa'', was a passenger liner and

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as ...

launched in Germany in 1930. She was owned and operated by the German shipping line in the 1930s under the name ''Monte Rosa''. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

she was operated by the

German navy The German Navy (, ) is the navy of Germany and part of the unified ''Bundeswehr'' (Federal Defense), the German Armed Forces. The German Navy was originally known as the ''Bundesmarine'' (Federal Navy) from 1956 to 1995, when ''Deutsche Mari ...

as a

troopship A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper) is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable land troops directly on shore, typicall ...

. At the end of the war, she was taken by the British Government as a

prize of war A prize of war is a piece of enemy property or land seized by a belligerent party during or after a war or battle, typically at sea. This term was used nearly exclusively in terms of captured ships during the 18th and 19th centuries. Basis in inte ...

and renamed the ''Empire Windrush''. In British service, she continued to be used as a troopship until March 1954, when the vessel caught fire and sank in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

with the loss of four crewmen. HMT stands for "His Majesty's Transport" and MV for "

Motor Vessel A motor ship or motor vessel is a ship propelled by an internal combustion engine, usually a diesel engine. The names of motor ships are often prefixed with MS, M/S, MV or M/V. Engines for motorships were developed during the 1890s, and by th ...

". In 1948, ''Empire Windrush'' brought one of the first large groups of postwar

West Indian A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). For more than 100 years the words ''West Indian'' specifically described natives of the West Indies, but by 1661 Europeans had begun to use it ...

immigrants to the United Kingdom, carrying 1,027 passengers and two

stowaway A stowaway or clandestine traveller is a person who secretly boards a vehicle, such as a ship, an aircraft, a train, cargo truck or bus. Sometimes, the purpose is to get from one place to another without paying for transportation. In other ...

s on a voyage from

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispa ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. 802 of these passengers gave their last country of residence as somewhere in the Caribbean: of these, 693 intended to settle in the United Kingdom. British Caribbean people who came to the United Kingdom in the period after World War II, including those who came on later ships, are sometimes referred to as the Windrush generation.

Background and description

Bundesarchiv Bild 102-09086, Passagierschiff

''Empire Windrush'', under the name MV ''Monte Rosa'', was the last of five almost identical that were built by

Blohm & Voss Blohm+Voss (B+V), also written historically as Blohm & Voss, Blohm und Voß etc., is a German shipbuilding and engineering company. Founded in Hamburg in 1877 to specialise in steel-hulled ships, its most famous product was the World War II battl ...

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

between 1924 and 1931 for (Hamburg South American Steam Shipping Company). During the 1920s, Hamburg Süd believed there would be a lucrative business in carrying German emigrants to South America (''see German Argentine''). The first two ships (MV ''Monte Sarmiento'' and MV ''Monte Olivia'') were built for that purpose with single-class passenger accommodation of 1,150 in cabins and 1,350 in dormitories. In the event, the emigrant trade was less than expected and the two ships were repurposed as

s, operating in Northern European waters, the Mediterranean and around South America. This proved to be a great success. Until then, cruise holidays had been the preserve of the rich. But by providing modestly priced cruises, Hamburg Süd was able to profitably cater to a large new clientele. Another ship was commissioned to cater for the demand – the MV ''Monte Cervantes''. However, she struck an uncharted rock and sank after only two years in service. Despite this, Hamburg Süd remained confident in the design and quickly ordered two more ships, the MV ''Monte Pascoal'' and the MV ''Monte Rosa''. ''Monte Rosa'' was long, with a beam of . She had a depth of . The ship was assessed at , .

Engines and machinery

The five Monte-class vessels were diesel-powered motor ships. At the time, the use of diesel engines was highly unusual in ships of this size, which would have been typically steam-powered. The first two to be launched ''Monte Sarmiento'' and ''Monte Olivia'' were in fact the first large diesel-powered passenger ships to see service with a German operator. The use of diesel engines reflected the experience Blohm & Voss had gained by building diesel-powered

U-boats U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare rol ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

Windrush carried four oil-burning four-stroke single-acting

MAN A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromo ...

diesel engines with a combined output of . They were single-reduction geared in pairs to two propellers. The ships' top speed was (around half the speed of the large trans-Atlantic Ocean liners of the era) but this was considered adequate for both the immigrant and cruise business. Electrical power was initially provided by three, 350-kW DC electric generators, powered by internal combustion engines and installed in the engine room; a fourth generator was added in 1949. There was also an emergency generator outside the engine room. The ship also carried two Scotch marine boilers to produce high-pressure steam for some auxiliary machinery. These could be heated either by burning diesel fuel or by using the hot exhaust gases from the main engines.

Naming

The Monte-Class ships were named after mountains in Europe or South America. ''Monte Rosa'' was named after

Monte Rosa : , other_name = Monte Rosa massif , translation = Mount Rose , photo = Dufourspitze (Monte Rosa) and Monte Rosa Glacier as seen from Gornergrat, Wallis, Switzerland, 2012 August.jpg , photo_caption = Central Mon ...

, a mountain

massif In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...

located on the Swiss-Italian border and the second-highest mountain in the Alps. The ship was renamed in British service. All varieties of merchant ships — cargo vessels, tankers, tugs and so on — in service with the United Kingdom Government during and after World War II had names prefixed with the word ''Empire'' (if the ship was built in Britain, borrowed or seized as a war prize). These vessels were known as Empire ships and numbered around 1,300. About sixty Empire Ships were named after British rivers.Adur, Arun, Blackwater, Bure, Calder, Clyde, Colne, Crouch, Dart, Dee, Derwent, Don, Chelmer, Cherwell, Dovey, Evenlode, Exe, Fal, Frome, Hamble, Humber, Kennet, Lune, Nene, Nidd, Orwell, Ouse, Otter, Ribble, Roden, Roding, Rother, Severn, Soar, Spey, Stour, Swale, Taff, Tamar, Taw, Tern, Teviot, Thames, Torridge, Trent, Tweed, Tyne, Usk, Wandle, Wansbeck, Waveney, Weaver, Welland, Wensum, Wey, Wharfe, Windrush, Witham, Wye, Yare. ''Empire Windrush''s namesake, the

River Windrush The River Windrush is a tributary of the River Thames in central England. It rises near Winchcombe in Gloucestershire and flows south east for via Burford and Witney to meet the Thames at Newbridge in Oxfordshire. The river gives its name to t ...

is a small tributary of the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

, that flows through the

Cotswolds The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of J ...

towards

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. The ship's designation prefix was also changed, from "MV" (Motor Vessel) to " HMT". This was used for British troopships and could stand for "His Majesty's Troopship", "His Majesty's Transport" or "Hired Military Transport".

Naval trawler Naval trawlers are vessels built along the lines of a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes; they were widely used during the First and Second World Wars. Some—known in the Royal Navy as "Admiralty trawlers"— were purpose-built ...

s in service with the Royal Navy also used the prefix HMT, in this case meaning ''His/Her Majesty's Trawler''. Some official documents, such as the enquiry report into the ship's loss, used "MV ''Empire Windrush''" instead of "HMT". Official Numbers are ship identifier numbers assigned to merchant ships by their country of registration. Each country developed its own official numbering system, some on a national and some on a port-by-port basis, and the formats have sometimes changed over time. National Official Numbers are different from

IMO Numbers IMO or Imo may refer to: Biology and medicine * Irish Medical Organisation, the main organization for doctors in the Republic of Ireland * Intelligent Medical Objects, a privately held company specializing in medical vocabularies * Isomaltoolig ...

. Flag states still use national systems, which also cover those vessels not subject to the IMO regulations. ''Monte Rosa'' had the German Official Number 1640. She used the

Maritime call sign Maritime call signs are call signs assigned as unique identifiers to ships and boats. All radio transmissions must be individually identified by the call sign. Merchant and naval vessels are assigned call signs by their national licensing author ...

RHWF until 1933 and then DIDU until 1945. When the ship sank in 1954 she had the British Official Number 181561.

Early history

''Monte Rosa'' was launched on 13 December 1930 and was delivered in early 1931 to Hamburg Süd. After

sea trial A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a " shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and ...

s, she departed from Hamburg on her first voyage to South America on 28 March, arriving back on 22 June. Monte Rosa's entry into service came just as the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

was causing a serious downturn in Hamburg Süd's cruise business. It was not until 1933 that this picked up again, when the older ships, ''Monte Sarmiento'' and ''Monte Olivia'' reverted to their original role of carrying immigrants to South America while ''Monte Pascoal'' and ''Monte Rosa'' were used for cruises, to Norway and the United Kingdom, ''Monte Rosa'' also continued to carry immigrants to South America, making more than 20 return-trips before the outbreak of World War II. After the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

regime came to power in Germany in 1933, the ship was used by the party to help spread its ideology. She was operated as part of the state-owned ('Strength through Joy') programme, which provided leisure activities and cheap holidays. When visiting South America, the ship was used to spread Nazi ideology among the German-speaking community there. When in port in Argentina, she hosted Nazi rallies for German-Argentine people. In 1933, the new German ambassador, , arrived in Argentina on the ''Monte Rosa''. He disembarked in front of an enthusiastic crowd wearing an SS uniform; he would spend his time in office actively proselytising Nazi ideology. The ship was also used as a venue for Nazi gatherings when docked in London. ''Monte Rosa'' ran aground off Thorshavn,

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

, on 23 July 1934, but was refloated the next day. In 1936, the ship made a rendezvous at sea with the airship ''

LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin LZ 127 ''Graf Zeppelin'' () was a German passenger-carrying, hydrogen-filled rigid airship that flew from 1928 to 1937. It offered the first commercial transatlantic passenger flight service. Named after the German airship pioneer Ferdin ...

''. During the manoeuvre, a bottle of champagne was hoisted from the ''Monte Rosa'' to the airship.

German World War II service

At the start of World War II, ''Monte Rosa'' was allocated for military use. She was used as a barracks ship at

Stettin Szczecin (, , german: Stettin ; sv, Stettin ; Latin: ''Sedinum'' or ''Stetinum'') is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major s ...

, then as a troopship for the

invasion of Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and th ...

in April 1940. She was later used as an accommodation and recreational ship attached to the

battleship A battleship is a large armour, armored warship with a main artillery battery, battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1 ...

'' Tirpitz'', stationed in the north of Norway, from where ''Tirpitz'' and her flotilla attacked the Allied convoys en route to Russia. In November 1942, she was one of several ships used for the deportation of Norwegian Jewish people. The ship made two trips from

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

to Denmark on the 19th and the 26th of November, carrying a total of 46 people. They included the Polish-Norwegian businessman and humanitarian

Moritz Rabinowitz Moritz Moses Rabinowitz (20 September 1887 – 27 February 1942) was a retail merchant based in the city of Haugesund, Norway. Rabinowitz was active in the Jewish community in Norway and was an early opponent of Nazism. After Nazi Germany invaded ...

. Of the 46, all but two were murdered at

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. I ...

. In September 1943, the ship was to be used for the deportation of Danish Jewish people. However the German chief of sea transport at

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwe ...

in Denmark, together with ''Monte Rosa's'' captain, , conspired to prevent this by falsely reporting serious engine trouble to the German High Command. This action may have contributed to the

Rescue of the Danish Jews The Danish resistance movement, with the assistance of many Danish citizens, managed to evacuate 7,220 of Denmark's 7,800 Jews, plus 686 non-Jewish spouses, by sea to nearby neutral Sweden during the Second World War.X-class submarine The X class was a World War II midget submarine class built for the Royal Navy during 1943–44. It was substantially larger than the original Chariot manned torpedo. Known individually as X-Craft, the vessels were designed to be towed to th ...

s at Altafjord in Norway, during Operation Source. The Germans were unwilling to risk moving the ship to a German dockyard for repair, so in October ''Monte Rosa'' was used to carry hundreds of civilian workers and engineers to Altafjord where they would repair the ''Tirpitz'' in situ.Arnott (2019), ''Ch.11'' During this time, ''Monte Rosa'' was docked alongside the battleship to act as accommodation for the workers. During the winter of 1943–1944, ''Monte Rosa'' continued to shuttle between Norway and Germany. On 30 March 1944, she was attacked by British and Canadian

Bristol Beaufighter The Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter (often called the Beau) is a British multi-role aircraft developed during the Second World War by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. It was originally conceived as a heavy fighter variant of the Bristol Beaufort ...

s. The strike was mounted for the explicit purpose of sinking her after British Intelligence had obtained details of the ship's movements. The ship was travelling south, escorted by two flak ships, a destroyer and by German fighters. The attacking force consisted of nine aircraft from

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

(RAF) 144 Squadron, five of which carried torpedoes; and nine aircraft from

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...

(RCAF) 404 Squadron, all armed with armour-piercing RP-3 rockets. The attack took place close to the Norwegian island of Utsira. The RCAF and RAF crews claimed two torpedo hits on Monte Rosa; the ship was also struck by eight rockets and by cannon fire. One German

Messerschmitt Bf 110 The Messerschmitt Bf 110, often known unofficially as the Me 110,Because it was built before ''Bayerische Flugzeugwerke'' became Messerschmitt AG in July 1938, the Bf 110 was never officially given the designation Me 110. is a twin-engine (Des ...

fighter was claimed shot down and two Beaufighters were lost; the two crew of one aircraft were killed, the crew of the other survived to become prisoners of war. Despite her damage, ''Monte Rosa'' was able to reach

in Denmark on 3 April. In June 1944, Max Manus and Gregers Gram, members of

Norwegian Independent Company 1 Norwegian Independent Company 1 (NOR.I.C.1, pronounced ''Norisén'' (approx. "noor-ee-sehn") in Norwegian) was a British Special Operations Executive (SOE) group formed in March 1941 originally for the purpose of performing commando raids during ...

(a British Army sabotage and resistance unit composed of Norwegians), attached

limpet mine A limpet mine is a type of naval mine attached to a target by magnets. It is so named because of its superficial similarity to the shape of the limpet, a type of sea snail that clings tightly to rocks or other hard surfaces. A swimmer or diver ...

s to ''Monte Rosa''s hull while the ship was in Oslo harbour. They had learned the ship was to carry 3,000 German troops back to Germany and their purpose was to sink her during the trip. The pair had twice bluffed their way into the dock area by posing as electricians, then hid for three days as they waited for the ship to arrive. After it docked, they paddled out to her from their hiding place on an inflatable rubber boat and attached their mines. The mines detonated when the ship was near

Øresund Øresund or Öresund (, ; da, Øresund ; sv, Öresund ), commonly known in English as the Sound, is a strait which forms the Danish–Swedish border, separating Zealand (Denmark) from Scania (Sweden). The strait has a length of ; its width ...

, damaging the hull; she remained afloat and returned to harbour under her own power. In September 1944, the vessel was damaged by another explosion, possibly from a mine. , a Norwegian boy with German parents who was being forcibly taken to Germany, was one of those on board when this happened. In his 2008 memoirs, he wrote that as well as German troops, the vessel was carrying Norwegian women with young children, who were being taken to Germany as part of the programme. He notes the explosion happened at 5 am, and states that around 200 on board were trapped and drowned as the ship's captain closed the watertight bulkhead doors to control flooding and stop the ship from sinking. On 16 February 1945, ''Monte Rosa'' was damaged by a mine explosion near the

Hel Peninsula Hel Peninsula (; pl, Mierzeja Helska, Półwysep Helski; csb, Hélskô Sztremlëzna; german: Halbinsel Hela or ''Putziger Nehrung'') is a sand bar peninsula in northern Poland separating the Bay of Puck from the open Baltic Sea. It is l ...

in the Baltic, With a flooded engine room, the ship was towed to the German-occupied Polish port of

Gdynia Gdynia ( ; ; german: Gdingen (currently), (1939–1945); csb, Gdiniô, , , ) is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With a population of 243,918, it is the 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in th ...

for temporary repairs. The ship was then towed to Copenhagen, carrying 5,000 German refugees who were fleeing from the advancing

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

. She was taken to

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...

in May 1945, and was there seized by British forces as a

Postwar British service

In 1947, ''Monte Rosa'' was assigned to the British

Ministry of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government ...

and registered as a British vessel. By this time, she was the only survivor of the five Monte-class ships. ''Monte Cervantes'' sank near

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of the Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla ...

in 1930. Two ships were sunk in

harbour by separate wartime air-raids, ''Monte Sarmiento'' in February 1942 and ''Monte Olivia'' in April 1945. ''Monte Pascoal'' was damaged by an air-raid on

Wilhelmshaven Wilhelmshaven (, ''Wilhelm's Harbour''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Willemshaven'') is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea, and has a population of 76,089. Wilhelmsh ...

in February 1944; in 1946 she was filled with chemical bombs and scuttled by the British in the

Skagerrak The Skagerrak (, , ) is a strait running between the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, the southeast coast of Norway and the west coast of Sweden, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea area through the Danish Straits to the Baltic Sea. T ...

. ''Monte Rosa'' was renamed HMT ''Empire Windrush'' on 21 January 1947, for use on the

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

–

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = "Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gibr ...

–

Suez Suez ( ar, السويس '; ) is a seaport city (population of about 750,000 ) in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez (a branch of the Red Sea), near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same bou ...

–

Aden Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 peopl ...

–

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

–

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

–

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

route, with voyages extended to Kure in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

after the start of the

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...

. The vessel was operated for the British Government by the

New Zealand Shipping Company The New Zealand Shipping Company (NZSC) was a shipping company whose ships ran passenger and cargo services between Great Britain and New Zealand between 1873 and 1973. A group of Christchurch businessmen founded the company in 1873, similar ...

, and made one voyage only to the Caribbean before resuming normal trooping voyages.

West Indian immigrants

In 1948, ''Empire Windrush'', which was en route from Australia to Britain via the Atlantic, docked in

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley Inte ...

, to pick up servicemen who were on leave. The

British Nationality Act 1948 The British Nationality Act 1948 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on British nationality law which defined British nationality by creating the status of "Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies" (CUKC) as the sole national ci ...

, giving the status of citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies (CUKC status) to all British subjects connected with the United Kingdom or a British colony, was going through parliament, and some Caribbean migrants decided to embark "ahead of the game". Prior to 1962, the UK had no immigration control for CUKCs, who could settle indefinitely in the UK without restrictions. The ship was far from full, and so an opportunistic advertisement was placed in a Jamaican newspaper, '' The Daily Gleaner'', offering cheap transport on the ship for anybody who wanted to come and work in the UK. Many former servicemen took this opportunity to return to Britain with the hopes of finding better employment, including, in some cases, rejoining the RAF; others decided to make the journey just to see what the "mother country" was like. One passenger later recalled that demand for tickets far exceeded the supply, and that there was a long queue to obtain one.

Passengers on board

A commonly given figure for the number of

immigrants on board the ''Empire Windrush'' is 492, based understandably on news reports in the media at the time, which variously announced that "more than 400", "430" or "500" Jamaican men had arrived in Britain.'Empire Windrush' Ship Arrives In Uk Carrying… 1948
British Pathé, 24 June 1948. However, the ship's records, kept in the United Kingdom National Archives, indicate conclusively that 802 passengers gave their last place of residence as a country in the Caribbean. The ship also carried 66 people whose last country of residence was Mexico – they were a group of Polish people who had travelled from Siberia via India and the Pacific, and who had been granted permission to settle in the United Kingdom under the terms of the

Polish Resettlement Act 1947 The Polish Resettlement Act 1947 was the first ever mass immigration legislation of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It offered British citizenship to over 250,000 displaced Polish troops on British soil who had fought against Nazi Germany an ...

. They had been among a group of Polish people who had been living in Mexico since 1943, and the ''Empire Windrush'' had called at Tampico, Mexico to pick them up. Of the other passengers, 119 were from Britain and 40 from other parts of the world. Among West Indian passengers was Sam Beaver King, who was travelling to the UK to rejoin the RAF. He would later help found the

Notting Hill Carnival The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual Caribbean festival event that has taken place in London since 1966

and become the first black

Mayor of Southwark The London Borough of Southwark ( ) in South London forms part of Inner London and is connected by bridges across the River Thames to the City of London and London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council a ...

. There were also the calypso musicians Lord Kitchener,

Lord Beginner Egbert Moore (1904–1981), known as Lord Beginner, was a popular calypsonian. Biography Moore was born in Port-of-Spain in Trinidad. According to AllMusic: "After attracting attention with his soulful singing in Trinidad and Tobago, Lord Beginne ...

Lord Woodbine Harold Adolphus Phillips (15 January 1929 – 5 July 2000), known as Lord Woodbine, was a Trinidadian calypsonian and music promoter. He is regarded by some as the musical mentor of The Beatles, and has been called the "sixth Beatle".Alan Clay ...

and

Mona Baptiste Mona Baptiste (21 June 1928 – 25 June 1993) was a Trinidad and Tobago-born singer and actress in London and Germany.master potter

Cecil Baugh Cecil Archibald Baugh (November 22, 1908 – June 28, 2005), was a Jamaican master potter and artist. Baugh was born on November 22, 1908 in Bangor Ridge, Portland Parish Portland, Jamaica to Isaac Baugh, a sawyer, and Emma Corban-Baugh, a fa ...

was also among the passengers. One of the stowaways was a woman who gave her name as Evelyn Wauchope, a 39-year-old dressmaker."First Girl Stowaway"
Letter in '' The Daily Gleaner'', Thursday 5 August 1948, p. 8. She was discovered seven days out of Kingston. A whip-round was organised on board ship, raising £50 – enough for the fare and £4 pocket money for her. Nancy Cunard "took a fancy to her" and "intended looking after her".Kynaston (2007), p. 276. Serving RAF officer Sierra Leonean

John Henry Clavell Smythe John Henry Clavell Smythe MBE (1915–1996) was a Royal Air Force officer during World War II and a figure in Sierra Leone. He was born a Sierra Leone Creole into the British Empire and served as a navigation officer in the Royal Air Force. He ...

was on the ship, acting as a welfare-officer; he would go on to become Attorney General of

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...

. Also on board was Nancy Cunard, English writer and heiress to the

Cunard Cunard () is a British shipping and cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its three ships have been registered in Hamilton, Ber ...

shipping fortune, who was on her way back from

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

Arrival

The arrival of ''Empire Windrush'' was a notable news event. Even when the ship was in the English Channel, the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' dispatched an aircraft to photograph her from the air, printing the story on the newspaper's front page. The ship docked at the

Port of Tilbury The Port of Tilbury is a port on the River Thames at Tilbury in Essex, England. It is the principal port for London, as well as being the main United Kingdom port for handling the importation of paper. There are extensive facilities for contai ...

, near London, on 21 June 1948UK, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878–1960
Ancestry.com in association with

The National Archives National archives are central archives maintained by countries. This article contains a list of national archives. Among its more important tasks are to ensure the accessibility and preservation of the information produced by governments, both ...

. and the 1,027 passengers began disembarking the next day. This was covered by newspaper reporters and by

Pathé News Pathé News was a producer of newsreels and documentaries from 1910 to 1970 in the United Kingdom. Its founder, Charles Pathé, was a pioneer of moving pictures in the silent era. The Pathé News archive is known today as British Pathé. Its col ...

newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, inform ...

cameras. The name Windrush, as a result, come to be used as shorthand for West Indian migration, and by extension for the beginning of modern British multiracial society. The purpose of ''Windrush''s voyage had been to transport service personnel. The additional arrival of civilian, West Indian immigrants was not expected by the British government, and not welcome.

George Isaacs George Alfred Isaacs JP DL (28 May 1883 – 26 April 1979) was a British politician and trades unionist who served in the government of Clement Attlee. Isaacs was born in Finsbury to a Methodist family. He married Flora Beasley (1884–196 ...

, the Minister of Labour, stated in Parliament that there would be no encouragement for others to follow their example. Three days before the ship arrived, Arthur Creech Jones, the

Secretary of State for the Colonies The secretary of state for the colonies or colonial secretary was the British Cabinet minister in charge of managing the United Kingdom's various colonial dependencies. History The position was first created in 1768 to deal with the increas ...

, wrote a

Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...

memorandum noting that the Jamaican Government could not legally prevent people from departing, and the British government could not legally prevent them from landing. However, he stated that the government was opposed to this immigration, and all possible steps would be taken by the

Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of c ...

and the Jamaican Government to discourage it. Despite this, the first legislation controlling immigration was not passed until 1962. Those who had not already arranged accommodation were temporarily housed in the Clapham South deep shelter in south-west London, less than a mile away from the

Coldharbour Lane Coldharbour Lane is a road in south London, England, that leads south-westwards from Camberwell to Brixton. The road is over long with a mixture of residential, business and retail buildings - the stretch of Coldharbour Lane near Brixton Mar ...

Employment Exchange in

Brixton Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th cent ...

, where some of the arrivals sought work. The stowaways served brief prison sentences, but were eligible to remain in the United Kingdom on their release. Many of ''Empire Windrush''s passengers only intended to stay for a few years but, although a number did return, the majority remained to settle permanently. Those born in the West Indies who settled in the UK in this migration movement over the following years are now typically referred to as the "Windrush Generation".

Later service

In May 1949, ''Empire Windrush'' was on a voyage from Gibraltar to Port had Said when a fire broke out on board. Four ships were put on standby to assist if the ship had to be abandoned. Although the passengers were placed in the lifeboats, they were not launched and the ship was subsequently towed back to Gibraltar. In February 1950, the ship was used to transport the last British troops stationed in Greece back to the United Kingdom, embarking the First Battalion of the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment at

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

on 5 February, and further troops and their families at

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; el, Πειραιάς ; grc, Πειραιεύς ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens' city centre, along the east coast of the Saro ...

. British forces had been in Greece since 1944, fighting on the side of the

Kingdom of Greece The Kingdom of Greece ( grc, label= Greek, Βασίλειον τῆς Ἑλλάδος ) was established in 1832 and was the successor state to the First Hellenic Republic. It was internationally recognised by the Treaty of Constantinople, wh ...

in the

Greek Civil War The Greek Civil War ( el, ο Eμφύλιος �όλεμος}, ''o Emfýlios'' 'Pólemos'' "the Civil War") took place from 1946 to 1949. It was mainly fought against the established Kingdom of Greece, which was supported by the United Kingdom and ...

. On 7 February 1953, around south of the

Nicobar Islands The Nicobar Islands are an archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean. They are located in Southeast Asia, northwest of Aceh on Sumatra, and separated from Thailand to the east by the Andaman Sea. Located southeast of the Indian ...

, ''Windrush'' sighted a small cargo ship, the ''Holchu'', adrift and sent out a general warning. ''Holchu'' was later boarded by the crew of a British cargo ship, the ''Ranee'', alerted by ''Windrush''s warning. They found no trace of the five crew and the vessel was towed to

. ''Holchu'' was carrying a cargo of rice and was in good condition aside from a broken mast. Adequate supplies of food, water and fuel were found, and a meal had been prepared in the ship's galley. The fate of ''Holchu''s crew remains unknown and the incident is cited in several works on

Ufology Ufology ( ) is the investigation of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) by people who believe that they may be of extraordinary origins (most frequently of extraterrestrial alien visitors). While there are instances of government, private, and ...

and the

Bermuda Triangle The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is an urban legend focused on a loosely defined region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and ships are said to have disappeared under mysteri ...

. In June 1953, ''Windrush'' was one of the ships that took part in the Fleet review that marked the

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II The coronation of Elizabeth II took place on 2 June 1953 at Westminster Abbey in London. She acceded to the throne at the age of 25 upon the death of her father, George VI, on 6 February 1952, being proclaimed queen by her privy and executive ...

Last voyage and sinking

''Empire Windrush'' set off from

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...

, Japan, in February 1954 on what proved to be her final voyage. She called at Kure and was to sail to the United Kingdom, calling at

and

Port Said Port Said ( ar, بورسعيد, Būrsaʿīd, ; grc, Πηλούσιον, Pēlousion) is a city that lies in northeast Egypt extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal. With an approximate population of 6 ...

. Her passengers included recovering wounded

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

veterans of the

, and some soldiers from the

Duke of Wellington's Regiment The Duke of Wellington's Regiment (West Riding) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, forming part of the King's Division. In 1702, Colonel George Hastings, 8th Earl of Huntingdon, was authorised to raise a new regiment, which he di ...

who had been wounded at the

Third Battle of the Hook The Third Battle of the Hook () was a battle of the Korean War that took place between a United Nations Command (UN) force, consisting mostly of British troops, supported on their flanks by American and Turkish units against a predominantly Ch ...

in May 1953. However, the voyage was plagued with engine breakdowns and other defects, including a fire after the departure from Hong Kong. It took 10 weeks to reach Port Said. There, a group of 50 Royal Marines from

3 Commando Brigade 3 Commando Brigade (3 Cdo Bde), previously called the 3rd Special Service Brigade, is a commando formation of the British Armed Forces. It is composed of the Royal Marine Commandos, alongside commando qualified sailors, soldiers and airmen from ...

came on board and ship left port for the last time.Dockerill, Geoffrey, "On Fire at Sea" essay in compilation ''The Unquiet Peace: Stories from the Post War Army'', London, 1957. On board were 222 crew and 1,276 passengers, including military personnel and some women and children, dependents of some of the military personnel. With 1498 people on board, the ship was almost completely full as it was certified to carry 1541.

Accidental fire

Empire Windrush on fire March1954 A32891

At around 6:15 am on Sunday 28 March, there was a sudden explosion and fierce fire in the engine room that killed the

third engineer A third engineer or second assistant engineer is a rank of engine officer who is part of the engine department on a ship. The third engineer is usually in charge of boilers, auxiliary engines, condensate and feed systems, record keeping of chemi ...

, two other members of the engine-room crew and the first electrician; a fifth crew member in the engine room and one in the boiler room, both greasers, managed to escape.The four killed were Senior Third Engineer George Stockwell, First Electrician J.W. Graves, Seventh Engineer A. Webster and Eighth Engineer Leslie Pendleton. Their bodies were not recovered and were lost when the ship sank. ''Arnott (2019)'' The ship was then in the western Mediterranean, off the coast of Algeria, about north-west of Cape Caxine. The ship quickly lost all electrical power as the four main

electrical generator In electricity generation, a generator is a device that converts motive power ( mechanical energy) or fuel-based power ( chemical energy) into electric power for use in an external circuit. Sources of mechanical energy include steam turbines, ...

s were located in the burning engine room; the backup generator was started, but problems with the main circuit breaker made its power unusable. The emergency generator powered the ship's emergency lighting, bilge pump, fire pump and the radio. The ship did not have a sprinkler system. The

chief officer A chief mate (C/M) or chief officer, usually also synonymous with the first mate or first officer, is a licensed mariner and head of the deck department of a merchant ship. The chief mate is customarily a watchstander and is in charge of the ship ...

heard the explosion from the ship's bridge and assembled the ship's firefighting squad, who happened to be on deck at the time doing routine work. However they were only able to fight the fire for a few minutes before the loss of electrical power stopped the water pumps that fed their fire hoses. The

second engineer A second engineer or first assistant engineer is a licensed member of the engineering department on a merchant vessel. This title is used for the person on a ship responsible for supervising the daily maintenance and operation of the engine depar ...

was able to enter the engine room by wearing a

smoke hood A smoke hood is a hood wherein a transparent airtight bag seals around the head of the wearer while an air filter held in the mouth connects to the outside atmosphere and is used to breathe. Smoke hoods are intended to protect victims of fire f ...

, but was unable to close a watertight door that might have contained the fire. Attempts to close all watertight doors using the controls on the bridge had also failed.

Rescue operations

At 6:23 am, the first distress calls were transmitted; further SOS calls used the emergency radio transmitter as electrical power had been lost. The order was given to wake the passengers and crew and assemble them at their emergency stations, but the ship's public address system was not working, nor were its air and steam whistles, so the order had to be transmitted by word of mouth. At 6:45 am, all attempts to fight the fire were halted and the order was given to launch the lifeboats, with the first ones away carrying the women and children on board and the ship's cat. While the ship's 22 lifeboats could accommodate all on board, thick smoke and the lack of electrical power prevented many of them from being launched. Each set of lifeboat

davit Boat suspended from radial davits; the boat is mechanically lowered Gravity multi-pivot on Scandinavia'' file:Bossoir a gravité.jpg, Gravity Roller Davit file:Davits-starbrd.png, Gravity multi-pivot davit holding rescue vessel on North Sea ferr ...

s accommodated two lifeboats and without electrical power, raising the wire ropes to lower the second boat was an arduous and slow task. With fire spreading rapidly, the order was given to drop the remaining boats into the sea. In the end, only 12 lifeboats were launched. Many of the crew and troops abandoned the ship by climbing down ladders or ropes and jumping into the sea, after first throwing overboard any loose items to hand that would float Some were picked up by Windrush's lifeboats, others by a boat from the first rescue ship, which reached the scene at 7.00 am. The last person to leave ''Windrush'' was the chief officer at 7:30 am. Although some people were in the sea for two hours, all were rescued and the only fatalities were the four crew killed in the engine room. The ships responding to Windrush's distress call were the Dutch ship , the British P&O

Cargo liner A cargo liner, also known as a passenger-cargo ship or passenger-cargoman, is a type of merchant ship which carries general cargo and often passengers. They became common just after the middle of the 19th century, and eventually gave way to conta ...

, the Norwegian ship and the Italian ships and . A Royal Air Force

Avro Shackleton The Avro Shackleton is a British long-range maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) which was used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the South African Air Force (SAAF). It was developed by Avro from the Avro Lincoln bomber, which itself had been a develo ...

from 224 Squadron assisted in the rescue. The rescue vessels took the passengers and crew to

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques d ...

, where they were cared for by the

French Red Cross The French Red Cross (french: Croix-Rouge française), or the CRF, is the national Red Cross Society in France founded in 1864 and originally known as the ''Société française de secours aux blessés militaires'' (SSBM). Recognized as a public ...

and the

French Army History Early history The first permanent army, paid with regular wages, instead of feudal levies, was established under Charles VII of France, Charles VII in the 1420 to 1430s. The Kings of France needed reliable troops during and after the ...

. They were taken to

by the aircraft carrier , and from there returned to the United Kingdom by air.

Salvage attempt and sinking

Around 26 hours after ''Empire Windrush'' had been abandoned, she was reached by of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

's Mediterranean Fleet 100 km northwest of Algiers. The fire was still burning fiercely more than a day after it started, but a party from ''Saintes'' managed to get on board and attach a tow cable. At about midday, ''Saintes'' began to tow the ship to Gibraltar, at a speed of around , but ''Empire Windrush'' sank in the early hours of the following morning, Tuesday, 30 March 1954, after having been towed a distance of only around . The wreck lies at a depth of around .

Inquiry into the sinking

An inquiry into the sinking of ''Empire Windrush'' was held in London between the 21 June and 7 July 1954. John Vickers Naisby, the wreck commissioner lead the enquiry.Arnott (2019) ''Chapter 23''

Sidney Silverman Samuel Sydney Silverman (8 October 1895 – 9 February 1968) was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour politician and vocal opponent of capital punishment. Early life Silverman was born in poverty to a migrant Jewish parents from Iași, Jassy, Ro ...

, lawyer and Member of Parliament, represented the interests of the ship's crew, and during the proceedings tried to show that ''Windrush'' was in an unsafe state and was not fit to be at sea - one of the four men killed in the accident, Engineer Leslie Pendleton, had written several letters to his father describing the ship's poor state of repair, many breakdowns, and a previous fire. These were submitted to the enquiry as evidence. No firm cause for the fire was established, but it was thought the most likely cause was that corrosion in one of the ship's funnels, or ''uptakes'', may have led to a panel failing, causing incandescently hot soot to fall into the engine room, where it damaged a fuel oil or lubricating oil supply pipe and ignited the leaking oil. An alternative theory was that a fuel pipe fractured and deposited fuel oil onto a hot exhaust pipe. The enquiry also concluded that ''Windrush'' was seaworthy at the time she caught fire. It was thought the rapid failure of the ship's three main electrical generators was due to the fire consuming all the oxygen in the engine-room and stopping the internal combustion engines that powered them. The rapid depletion of oxygen and the fire's noxious gasses were thought to have also caused the deaths of the four engine room crew. As the ship was government property, she was not insured.

Legacy

In 1954, several of the military personnel on board ''Empire Windrush'' during her final voyage received decorations for their role in the evacuation of the burning ship. A military nurse was awarded the

Royal Red Cross The Royal Red Cross (RRC) is a military decoration awarded in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth for exceptional services in military nursing. Foundation The award was established on 27 April 1883 by Queen Victoria, with a single class of Mem ...

for her role in evacuating the patients under her care. In 1998, an area of public open space in

, London, was renamed

Windrush Square Windrush Square (often referred to by its original name, Brixton Oval) is an open public space in the centre of Brixton, South London, occupying an area in front of the Brixton Tate Library. After changing its name to Tate Gardens, it was again r ...

to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the arrival of ''Empire Windrush''s West Indian passengers. To commemorate the "Windrush Generation", in 2008, a Thurrock Heritage plaque was unveiled at the London Cruise Terminal at

Tilbury Tilbury is a port town in the borough of Thurrock, Essex, England. The present town was established as separate settlement in the late 19th century, on land that was mainly part of Chadwell St Mary. It contains a 16th century fort and an anc ...

. This chapter in the boat's history was also commemorated, although fleetingly only, in the Pandemonium sequence of the Opening Ceremony of the Games of the XXX Olympiad in London, 27 July 2012. A small replica of the ship plastered with newsprint was the facsimile representation in the ceremony. In 2020, a fund-raising effort was begun for a project to recover one of the ship's anchors as a monument to the people of the Windrush generation.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* ''

Sea Breeze A sea breeze or onshore breeze is any wind that blows from a large body of water toward or onto a landmass; it develops due to differences in air pressure created by the differing heat capacities of water and dry land. As such, sea breezes a ...

'', various contemporary issues. * ''

The Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet ...

'', 20 June 1954, for a report of the Strength Through Joy programme, archived in WO 32/15643 at the

Public Record Office The Public Record Office (abbreviated as PRO, pronounced as three letters and referred to as ''the'' PRO), Chancery Lane in the City of London, was the guardian of the national archives of the United Kingdom from 1838 until 2003, when it was ...

and the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...

Newspaper Library, London. *

Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...

Inquiry Report, archived as BT 239/56 at the Public Record Office. *

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

files on the loss, archived as WO 32/15643 at the Public Record Office, including contemporary press clippings. * Report of the British Consul in Algiers for the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...

, archived at the Public Record Office as FO 859/26, including recommendation to invite the Mayor of Algiers to London, an invoice for services rendered by the French Army in Algeria, a full passenger list, and letters from passengers. * *

External links

Board of Trade 'Inwards passenger lists, 1948' Subseries within BT 26 Record Summary
– held at

(UK), Kew, Richmond, Surrey.
Film
by Youmanity tracing the arrival of a Jamaican family aboard ''Empire Windrush''
Oral history of passengers on the Windrush
from BBC History

Photograph of ''Monte Rosa''
in German wartime service (1943). Photograph Number 89096, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Photograph of ''Empire Windrush'' on fire

Through My Eyes website
– Imperial War Museum Online Exhibition – Videos, pictures and interviews from the museum's archives showing the West Indian contribution to the World War II effort
"Windrush - the Passengers"
Mike Phillips, BBC History, 10 March 2011
Windrush settlers arrive in Britain, 1948 – treasures of The National Archives (UK).

Windrush settlers arrive in Britain, 1948 – Transcript

Windrush: Arrival 1948 Passenger List
- Goldsmiths College, University of London {{DEFAULTSORT:Empire Windrush History of immigration to the United Kingdom Jamaican diaspora Korean War History of Thurrock Shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea Passenger ships of Germany Ocean liners Troop ships of the United Kingdom Black British history Empire ships 1930 ships 20th century in the United Kingdom Maritime incidents in 1934 Maritime incidents in 1954 Troop ships of Germany

Background and description

Engines and machinery

Naming

Early history

German World War II service

Postwar British service

West Indian immigrants

Passengers on board

Arrival

Later service

Last voyage and sinking

Accidental fire

Rescue operations

Salvage attempt and sinking

Inquiry into the sinking

Legacy

See also

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links