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 II, the United Kingdom seized the ship as a prize of war and renamed her HMT Empire Windrush. She remained in British service as a troopship until 1954.
In June 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. The passengers included people from many parts of the world but the great majority were West Indian.
Empire Windrush was not the first ship to carry a large group of West Indian people to the United Kingdom as two other ships (the SS Ormonde and the SS Almanzora) had arrived the previous year. But her 1948 voyage became very well-known and a symbol of post-war migration to Britain. 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.
On 28 March 1954, while in the western Mediterranean Sea, a sudden explosion and fire in Windrush's engine room killed four people. The fire could not be controlled and 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.
Background and description Monte Rosa, was the last of five almost identical s that were built between 1924 and 1931 by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg for (Hamburg South American Steam Shipping Company).
In the 1920s Hamburg Süd believed there would be a lucrative business in carrying German emigrants to South America. (See "German Argentines".) The first two ships, Monte Sarmiento and Monte Olivia, were built for that trade with single-class passenger accommodation of 1,150 passengers in cabins, and 1,350 in dormitories. However, the number of emigrants was less than expected so the two ships were repurposed as cruise ships, operating in Northern European waters, the Mediterranean and around South America. This venture became a great success.
Until the 1920s, cruise holidays had been the preserve of the very wealthy. But by providing modestly priced cruises, Hamburg Süd could profitably attract a large new clientele. The company commissioned another ship, , to meet the increased demand. But she sank after only two years' service when she struck an uncharted rock in the Beagle Channel. Hamburg Süd then ordered two more ships: and Monte Rosa.
Monte Rosas registered length was , her beam was , her depth was , and her draught was . Her tonnages were and .
Engines and machinery
All five Monte-class ships were motor ships. The first two to be launched, Monte Sarmiento and Monte Olivia, were the first large Diesel-powered passenger ships to serve with a German operator. The use of diesel engines drew on the experience Blohm & Voss had gained by building diesel-powered U-boats in World War I.
Windrush had a set of four four-stroke, six-cylinder, single-acting MAN Diesel engines. She had two screw propellers, each of which was driven by one pair of engines via single-reduction gearing. Her engines' combined output was rated at , and gave her a speed of . This was slower than Hamburg Süd's flagship , but more economical for the emigrant trade, and for pleasure cruises.
Electric power was supplied by a set of DC electric generators, powered by internal combustion engines in the engine room. As built, Monte Rosa had three 350 kW generators. A fourth generator was added in 1949. She had 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 her main engines.
Naming and registration The Monte-class ships were named after mountains in Europe or South America. Monte Rosa was named after Monte Rosa, which is a mountain massif on the Swiss-Italian border, and is the second-highest mountain in the Alps. Hamburg Süd registered her at Hamburg. Her German official number was 1640, and her code letters were RHWF. By 1934 her call sign was DIDU, and this had superseded her code letters.
Under UK ownership she became one of about 1,300 Empire ships. About 60 Empire ships were named after British rivers.Adur, Arun, Blackwater, Bure, Calder, Chelmer, Cherwell, Clyde, Colne, Crouch, Dart, Dee, Derwent, Don, 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. Her namesake, the River Windrush, rises in the Cotswolds, and joins the River Thames a few miles upstream of Oxford. The Ministry of Transport registered her at London. Her UK official number was 181561, and her call sign was GYSF.
In UK service, her name had the prefix "HMT" which could stand for "His Majesty's Troopship", "His Majesty's Transport" or "Hired Military Transport".Royal Navy armed trawlers also used the prefix HMT, in this case meaning "His/Her Majesty's Trawler". Some official documents, including the enquiry report into the ship's loss, use "MV" (which stands for Motor Vessel), instead of "HMT".
German merchant service Blohm & Voss launched Monte Rosa on 13 December 1930. Early in 1931 she made her sea trials and was delivered to Hamburg Süd. Her maiden voyage was from Hamburg to Buenos Aires. She left Hamburg on 28 March 1931, and got back on 22 June. For the remainder of 1931, all four Monte sisters were scheduled to sail between Hamburg and Buenos Aires. They were scheduled to call at A Coruña and Vigo on outward voyages only; and to call at Las Palmas, Rio de Janeiro, Santos, São Francisco do Sul, Rio Grande, and Montevideo in both directions.
Monte Rosa entered service just as the Great Depression was causing a global slump in shipping, including Hamburg Süd's passenger business. In 1933 trade began to recover, so Hamburg Süd returned the older ships, Monte Sarmiento and Monte Olivia, to their original role of taking emigrants to South America; and put Monte Pascoal and Monte Rosa mainly on cruises to Norway and the UK. By 1935 Monte Rosa was back on her route between Hamburg and Buenos Aires. She made more than 20 round trips on the route before the outbreak of World War II.
After coming to power in Germany in 1933, the Nazi Party used ships including Monte Rosa to further its ideology. In 1937 the Nazi government chartered Monte Olivia, Monte Rosa, and Monte Sarmiento to provide cruise holidays for the state-owned ("Strength through Joy") programme. This provided concerts, lectures, sports activities and cheap holidays as a means of strengthening support for the Nazi regime and indoctrinating people in its ideology. The cruises ranged from eight to 20 days in duration. One route went north from Hamburg, along the Norwegian coast and travelling as far as Svalbard. Another was through the Mediterranean, stopping in Italy and Libya, and travelling as far east as Port Said. Each voyage included a number of undercover Gestapo officers, tasked with spying on the passengers.
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 Argentines. In 1933, the new German ambassador, Baron , sailed to Argentina aboard Monte Rosa. He disembarked wearing an SS uniform in front of an enthusiastic crowd. He spent his time in office promoting Nazi ideology. The ship was also a venue for Nazi gatherings when docked in London.
On 23 July 1934 Monte Rosa ran aground off Thorshavn in the Faroe Islands. She was refloated the next day. In 1936 she rendezvoused at sea with the airship , and a bottle of Champagne was hoisted from her deck to the airship.
World War II service When World War II began, Monte Rosa was in Hamburg. From 11 January 1940 she was a barracks ship at Stettin (now Szczecin), and in April 1940 she was a troopship for the invasion of Norway, mainly sailing to Oslo.
She was one of two ships used in 1942 to deport Norwegian Jews. She made two trips from Oslo to Denmark on 19 and 26 November, carrying a total of 46 Jewish people, including the Polish-Norwegian businessman and humanitarian Moritz Rabinowitz. All but two were murdered at Auschwitz concentration camp. In September 1943 she was to be used for the deportation of Danish Jews. The German chief of sea transport at Aarhus in Denmark, together with Monte Rosas captain, , conspired to prevent this by falsely reporting serious engine trouble to the German High Command. This action may have helped the rescue of the Danish Jews.
In September 1943, Royal Navy s in Operation Source badly damaged the battleship in Altafjord in Norway. Germany was unwilling to risk moving the ship to a German dockyard for repair, so in October Monte Rosa was used to take hundreds of civilian workers and engineers to Altafjord, where they repaired Tirpitz in situ. Monte Rosa was docked alongside Tirpitz as an accommodation ship for the workers, and as a repair ship.
Air attack
During the winter of 1943–1944, Monte Rosa continued to sail between Norway and Germany. On 30 March 1944, British and Canadian Bristol Beaufighters attacked her. The strike was planned to sink her, after a reconnaissance aircraft of 333 (Norwegian) Squadron had tracked her movements. The ship was sailing south, escorted by two flak ships; a destroyer; and German fighter aircraft. The attacking force comprised nine aircraft of Royal Air Force (RAF) 144 Squadron, five of which carried torpedoes; and nine aircraft of Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) 404 Squadron, all armed with armour-piercing RP-3 rockets.
The attack was near the Norwegian island of Utsira. The RCAF and RAF crews claimed two torpedo hits on Monte Rosa. Cannon fire and eight rockets also hit her. One German Messerschmitt Bf 110 fighter was shot down, and 404 Squadron lost two Beaufighters. The two crew of one aircraft were killed; the crew of the other (one of whom was the squadron commanding officer) survived and were made prisoners of war. Despite her damage, Monte Rosa reached Aarhus in Denmark on 3 April.
Sabotage attack In June 1944, Max Manus and Gregers Gram, members of Norwegian Independent Company 1 (a British Army sabotage and resistance unit composed of Norwegians), attached limpet mines to Monte Rosas hull while she was in Oslo harbour. The British had learned the ship was to take 3,000 German troops back to Germany. The raid's purpose was to sink her during the voyage. The pair 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 she docked, they paddled out to her in an inflatable rubber boat and attached their mines. The mines detonated when the ship was near Øresund. They damaged her hull, but she stayed afloat, and returned to harbour under her own power.
Further war damage