HMT Empire Windrush

	Empire Windrush
History
→ → Germany
Name	MV Monte Rosa (1930–1947)
Namesake	Monte Rosa
Owner	Hamburg Süd (1930–40); Kriegsmarine;
Operator	Hamburg Süd (1930–40); Kriegsmarine (1940–45);
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	May 1945
Identification	German Official Number 1640 (1930–45); Code Letters RHWF (1930–33); ; Code Letters DIDU (1933–45); ;
Fate	Seized by the United Kingdom as a war reparation
United Kingdom
Name	HMT Empire Windrush
Namesake	River Windrush
Owner	Ministry of War Transport (1945–46); Ministry of Transport (1945–54);
Operator	New Zealand Shipping Company
Port of registry	London
Acquired	November 1945
In service	1947
Out of service	30 March 1954
Fate	Sank after catching fire
General characteristics
Tonnage	13,882 GRT; 7,788 Net register tonnage; 8,530 long tons deadweight (DWT);
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 a large group of West Indian immigrants to the United Kingdom, carrying 1,027 passengers and two stowaways on a voyage from Jamaica to the Port of Tilbury near 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. Additionally, the ship carried 66 Polish people intending to settle in Britain.

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. 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.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.