A long night with creepy-crawlies

THE rumpus over Windrush and immigration from the Caribbean has stirred my memory to when the Empire Windrush was used as a troopship. When the war in Europe was almost over, I was included in a posting to the Far East, as Japan had not yet surrendered. We landed at Bombay (now Mumbai) from R.M.S. Scythia and I served in Singapore, then Batavia (now Jakarta) and finally India, prior to partition. When my demobilisation was due in September 1947, I boarded the Empire Windrush at Bombay for the return to the UK. I never liked hammocks, so on the first night at sea I decided to sleep on one of the mess deck tables. During the night, I was awakened by something crawling over my face. I soon realised there was a mass of cockroaches all over the table and the underside was encrusted with grease. Needless to say, the hammock was a refuge for the next three weeks! Before the Empire Windrush was used on the Caribbean immigration runs, it would have needed an extensive clean.

Donald Anderson, High Spen, Tyne and Wear.