This feature first appeared in June 2023 on Londonist: Time Machine, our much-praised history newsletter. To be the first to read new history features like this, sign up for free here.
It’s more than 75 years since the Empire Windrush pulled into Tilbury Docks. The people she brought to Britain from the Caribbean, along with migrants on other vessels, would later be known as the Windrush Generation. Many settled in the capital and worked for institutions like the NHS and London Transport. Their stories are rich and varied — many recorded and explored in amazing breadth and detail at Brixton’s Black Cultural Archives — but all-too-often harrowing. Racism, workplace exploitation and scandalous housing conditions greeted many of the newcomers.
Decades later, government “ignorance and thoughtlessness... consistent with some elements of the definition of institutional racism" — as 2020’s independent review put it — would see many of the Windrush Generation unjustly detained, deported, made homeless, and denied lifesaving NHS treatment.
The human stories tied into the ship's journey are collected and honoured in galleries, memorials, statues and museums across London (and the UK). But not, though, on the ship itself...
Against the human drama of lives lived and lost, it seems trivial to ask about the fate of a boat. But this *is* one of the most important ships in British history. Its journey shaped not just the lives of the people it carried, but also helped transform London and the nation forever. How come we can’t travel to Tilbury and board the Museum Ship Empire Windrush? Where is it?
The short answer: it sank.
The longer answer is set out below. But before we get to the Windrush’s fateful last voyage, it’s worth taking a look at the ship’s backstory. Its service life was brief, but packed to the gunwales with incident — some of it very grim.
War and Peace: A surprising origin story
Given her significance to British history, identity and multiculturalism, it felt jarring to learn, when we started exploring its origin story, that the Windrush sailed for more than a decade under the colours of Nazi Germany.
The MV Monte Rosa was launched in Hamburg on 13 December 1930, a couple of years before the Nazis came to power. The ship that would become the Empire Windrush was originally named after the Monte Rosa Alpine massif.
The original plan was for Monte Rosa to serve as an emigrant ship, transporting Germans over to Brazil and Argentina. But with the coming of the Third Reich, the ship found more profitable use as a luxury liner. Her sightseeing tours of Europe included numerous jaunts to London, mooring at Greenwich.
In 1936, the crew even played a football match against Greenwich Borough Council staff (losing 3-2, since you ask). London to Hamburg cruises on the Monte Rosa were advertised as late as June 1938, while the proverbial storm clouds of war gathered on the continent.
The Monte Rosa was soon drafted into military service, first as a floating barracks and then as a troop carrier during the German invasion of Norway. She also served as a support vessel for notorious battleship Tirpitz.
It was in Norway that the ship would embark on her most shameful mission. In November 1942, Monte Rosa transported 46 Norwegian Jewish people to Auschwitz. 44 of them would later be murdered at the camp. A repeat mission a year later would have seen the ship used to transport Danish Jews, but for the actions of its captain, who reportedly feigned engine trouble to prevent the voyage.
The Monte Rosa continued in various roles until the end of the war. She suffered torpedo, shell and air attacks, and was even blasted by limpet mines, planted by a British-Norwegian sabotage unit. In September 1944, the ship was again hit by torpedoes. The only eye-witness account suggests up to 200 passengers were killed when a compartment filled with water, though this is impossible to verify. Suffice it to say, the future Windrush had an eventful and tragedy-filled war.
The ship’s fortunes were about to change, however. Towards the end of the conflict, it was captured by the British in Kiel, northern Germany. From here, the ship was moored on the Tyne at South Shields for a year, where it underwent repairs. It was here that the name of Empire Windrush was bestowed, in March 1946. Who chose the name and why is not recorded. Regardless, the new moniker was made official on 21 January 1947 when His Majesty’s Transport (HMT) Empire Windrush was registered in London.
Over the next year, the Windrush would shuffle demobilizing and reassigned troops across the globe, before embarking on her most famous journey: from the Caribbean back to her home port of London. A ship of war, death and desperation had transformed into a vessel of hope and new beginnings.
What became of the Windrush?
Her final, ill-fated voyage came a year later, in 1954. The ship was on its way back to the UK, transporting injured soldiers from the Korean War. It had motored across from Japan via Hong Kong, Singapore, Colombo, Aden and then up the Suez Canal to Port Said in Egypt. This was to be her last port of call.
A few days out to sea and an explosion ripped through the engine room. Four crew were killed and a serious fire threatened to engulf the boat. Worse, the explosion had knocked out the generators. Without full power, the water pumps that might have extinguished the fire could not function. The order was given to launch the lifeboats, but even this was hampered by a lack of power. Miraculously, all 1,500 passengers and remaining crew eventually got off the ship without further loss of life or serious injury.
The ship, however, could not be saved. A rescue boat reached the still-aflame Windrush a full day after it first caught fire, and even managed to tow the vessel a short distance. But the HMT Empire Windrush was fatally compromised and sank beneath the waves a few hours later. It lies there still, 100km north-west of Algiers.
Could the Windrush ever be raised?
It’s fair to say that the Windrush would make a pretty decent cultural attraction, were it to be floated on the Thames and opened as a museum ship, like HMS Belfast or the Cutty Sark. The vessel is one of the greatest symbols of multicultural Britain and, as we’ve seen, has a far wider back-story that touches many nations. Sadly, it is unlikely to ever become a reality. The ship is 2.6 km (1.6 miles) beneath the waves. No sizeable wreck has ever been salvaged from anything like that depth. And, of course, the Windrush was badly damaged in the fire that sank her, compounded by 70 years of erosion in the brine.
But we might see a symbolic rising. The Windrush Anchor Memorial Project is hoping to one day raise the anchor from the long-lost ship (which remains lost – the wreck site has yet to be identified). The same anchor was pictured prominently on one of the most iconic photographs of the Windrush. It would make a fitting and poignant memorial to the Windrush Generation and their descendants. And it would remind us, too, of the many other stories that have played out on the decks of this remarkable ship.
We might not be able to visit the Empire Windrush, but the ship’s legacy lives on in the infinite ways its passengers and its descendants have enriched British life.
Windrush memorials in London
If you live in, or are visiting London, then numerous memorials to the Windrush generation can be found. The most recent and prominent is the National Windrush Memorial in Waterloo station – a bronze sculpture of an immigrant family by Jamaican sculptor Basil Watson.
Another memorial to Windrush can be found near St Augustine’s Tower in Hackney. Here, artist Veronica Ryan OBE has assembled a trio of sculptures in her 2021 work representing three Caribbean plants (breadfruit, soursoup and custard apple).
Paddington station has a simple plaque – on a column between the mainline terminus and the Elizabeth line entrance, remembering migrants who arrived through this station (the most famous of whom, Paddington bear, is commemorated separately inside!).
Finally, Windrush Square in Brixton is a long-established community space whose name was established in 1998 for the 50th anniversary of the Windrush voyage. The square also contains the African and Caribbean War Memorial and the Black Cultural Archives.
