Around 26 hours after Empire Windrush had been abandoned, she was reached by of the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet 100 km northwest of Algiers. The fire was still burning fiercely more than a day after it started, but a party from Saintes managed to get on board and attach a tow cable. At about midday, Saintes began to tow the ship to Gibraltar, at a speed of around , but Empire Windrush sank in the early hours of the following morning, Tuesday, 30 March 1954, after having been towed a distance of only around . The bodies of the four men killed were not recovered, and were lost when the ship sank.Arnott (2019)
