 Empire Windrush
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name |
|
| Namesake |
|
| Owner |
|
| Operator |
|
| Port of registry | |
| Route | 1931: Hamburg – Buenos Aires |
| Builder | Blohm+Voss, Hamburg |
| Yard number | 492 |
| Launched | 13 December 1930 |
| Maiden voyage | 28 March – 30 June 1931 |
| Identification |
|
| Fate | caught fire and sank, 1954 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Monte-class passenger ship |
| Tonnage | |
| Length | 500.3 ft (152.5 m) |
| Beam | 65.7 ft (20.0 m) |
| Draught | 26 ft 4+1⁄2 in (8.04 m) |
| Depth | 37.8 ft (11.5 m) |
| Decks | 4 |
| Installed power | 6,880 bhp (5,130 kW) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 14 knots (26 km/h) |
| Crew | 222 |
| Sensors and processing systems |
|
| Notes | sister ships: Monte Olivia, Monte Sarmiento, Monte Cervantes, Monte Pascoal |
| Part of a series on the |
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HMT Empire Windrush was a passenger motor ship that was launched in Germany in 1930 as the MV Monte Rosa. She was built as an ocean liner for the German shipping company Hamburg Süd. They used the ship to carry German emigrants to South America, and as a cruise ship. During World War II, she was taken over by the German navy and used as a troopship. During the war, she survived two Allied attempts to sink her.
After World War 2, the United Kingdom seized the ship as a prize of war and renamed her HMT Empire Windrush. She remained in service as a troopship until March 1954. While sailing in Mediterranean Sea, there was a sudden explosion and fire in the engine room that killed four people. With the fire out of control, the ship was abandoned; the other 1494 passengers and crew were all rescued. The empty ship remained afloat and on-fire for nearly two days, eventually sinking during an attempt to salvage her.
In 1948, Empire Windrush arrived at the Port of Tilbury near London, carrying 1,027 passengers and two stowaways who embarked at Trinidad, Jamaica, Mexico and Bermuda. While the passengers included people from many parts of the world, the great majority were West Indian.[1][2]
Empire Windrush was not the first ship to carry a large group of West Indian people to the United Kingdom, as two other ships had arrived the previous year.[3] But her 1948 voyage became very well-known and a symbol of post-war migration to Britain.[4] British Caribbean people who came to the United Kingdom in the period after World War II, including those who came on other ships, are often referred to as the Windrush generation.
- ^ Rodgers, Lucy; Ahmed, Maryam (27 April 2018). "Windrush: Who exactly was on board?". BBC News. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
- ^ Mead 2017[page needed]
- ^ "Ormonde, Almanzora and Windrush". The National Archives. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
- ^ "Who were the Windrush generation and what is Windrush Day?". BBC News. 16 April 2018. Retrieved 12 August 2024.