HMT Empire Windrush facts for kids
Empire Windrush
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Quick facts for kids History |
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 →  →  Germany |
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| Name | MV Monte Rosa (1930–1947) |
| Namesake | Monte Rosa |
| Owner |
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| Operator |
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| Port of registry | Hamburg (1930–40) |
| Builder | Blohm & Voss, Hamburg |
| Yard number | 492 |
| Launched | 13 December 1930 |
| Maiden voyage | 28 March 1931–30 June 1931, Hamburg – South America – Hamburg |
| Out of service | 1945 |
| Identification |
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| Fate | Seized by the United Kingdom as a war reparation |
 United Kingdom |
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| Name | HMT Empire Windrush |
| Namesake | River Windrush |
| Owner |
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| Operator | New Zealand Shipping Company |
| Port of registry | London |
| Acquired | 1945 |
| In service | 1947 |
| Out of service | 30 March 1954 |
| Fate | Sank after catching fire |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage |
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| Length | 500 ft 3 in (152.48 m) |
| Beam | 65 ft 7 in (19.99 m) |
| Depth | 37 ft 8 in (11.48 m) |
| Propulsion | 4 SCSA diesel engines (Blohm & Voss, Hamburg), double reduction geared driving two propellers. |
| Speed | 14.5 knots (26.9 km/h) |
HMT Empire Windrush, originally MV Monte Rosa, was a passenger liner and cruise ship launched in Germany in 1930. She was owned and operated by the German shipping line Hamburg Süd in the 1930s under the name Monte Rosa. During World War II she was operated by the German navy as a troopship. At the end of the war, she was taken by the British Government as a prize of war 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 with the loss of four crewmen. HMT stands for "His Majesty's Transport" and MV for "Motor Vessel".
In 1948, Empire Windrush brought one of the early, large groups of postwar West Indian immigrants to the United Kingdom, carrying 1,027 passengers and two stowaways on a voyage from Jamaica to London. 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.
Windrush was not the first ship to carry a large group of West Indian people to the United Kingdom, as two other ships has arrived the previous year. But Windrush's 1948 voyage became very well-known; British Caribbean people who came to the United Kingdom in the period after World War II, including those who came on other ships, are sometimes referred to as the Windrush generation.
Contents
Background and description
Empire Windrush, under the name MV Monte Rosa, was the last of five almost identical Monte-class passenger ships that were built by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg between 1924 and 1931 for Hamburg Süd (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 cruise ships, 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 500 ft 6 in (152.55 m) long, with a beam of 65 ft 8 in (20.02 m). She had a depth of 37 ft 9 in (11.51 m). The ship was assessed at 13,882 GRT, 7,788 NRT.
Naming
The Monte-Class ships were named after mountains in Europe or South America. Monte Rosa was named after Monte Rosa, a mountain massif located on the Swiss-Italian border and the second-highest mountain in the Alps.
The ship was renamed in British service. Merchant ships in service with the United Kingdom Government during and after World War 2 had names prefixed with the word Empire. These vessels were known as Empire ships and numbered around 1,300. Windrush was one of around sixty empire ships that were named after British rivers. Empire Windrush's namesake, the River Windrush is a small tributary of the Thames, that flows through the Cotswolds towards Oxford.
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". 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. 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 RHWF until 1933 and then DIDU until 1945. When the ship sank in 1954 she had the British Official Number 181561.
Last voyage and sinking
Empire Windrush set off from Yokohama, 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 Hong Kong, Singapore, Colombo, Aden and Port Said. Her passengers included recovering wounded United Nations veterans of the Korean War, and some soldiers from the Duke of Wellington's Regiment who had been wounded at the Third Battle of the Hook 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 came on board and ship left port for the last time.
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
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, 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 ship was then in the western Mediterranean, off the coast of Algeria, about 30 miles (48 km) north-west of Cape Caxine.
The ship quickly lost all electrical power as the four main electrical generators 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 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 was able to enter the engine room by wearing a smoke hood, 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 davits 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 MV Mentor, the British P&O Cargo liner MV Socotra, the Norwegian ship SS Hemsefjell and the Italian ships SS Taigete and SS Helschell. A Royal Air Force Avro Shackleton from 224 Squadron assisted in the rescue.
The rescue vessels took the passengers and crew to Algiers, where they were cared for by the French Red Cross and the French Army. They were taken to Gibraltar by the aircraft carrier HMS Triumph, 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 HMS Saintes of the Royal Navy'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 3.5 knots (6.5 km/h), 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 16 kilometres (8.6 nmi).
The wreck lies at a depth of around 2,600 m (8,500 ft).
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 for her role in evacuating the patients under her care.
In 1998, an area of public open space in Brixton, London, was renamed Windrush Square 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. 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.
Images for kids
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HMS Saintes in 1946
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Windrush Square, London (2006)
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Hamburg Süd's container ship Monte Rosa (2005)
