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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Mabel Banfield-Nwachi

‘We call it a touchstone’: the mission to find the Windrush anchor

Empire Windrush packed with West Indian immigrants on arrival at the Port of Tilbury on the River Thames on 22 June 1948
‘People will come and they will touch it’: the anchor on the Windrush in 1948. Photograph: Contraband Collection/Alamy

“We’re going to find it,” says the leading shipwreck hunter David Mearns. “My confidence level is as high as it’s ever been for anything I’ve ever done.” The mission to retrieve the HMT Empire Windrush’s anchor so it can stand as a public monument isn’t foolproof, but Mearns’s experience and conviction leave little room for doubt.

“You always have a contingency for unforeseen events [but] there isn’t a scenario here where this shipwreck could be a million miles away from where we’re looking for it. We’d have to go out and have a total disaster,” he adds. “I don’t contemplate failure.”

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