stella41b
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The SS Richard Montgomery was an American Liberty ship built during World War II, one of the 2,710 used to carry cargo during the war. These were simple, square-hulled vessels intended for carrying heavy cargo. In 1944 the Montgomery sailed from the Delaware River across the Atlantic to the Thames Estuary just off the coast of Kent. It was carrying approximately 7,000 tons of explosives for the Allied advance in France. It was anchored in the Thames Estuary close to where it meets the Medway, but it ran aground on the sandbanks in 24ft of water in the estuary at low tide, breaking it's hull, and sank.
It's load contains:
- 13,064 general purpose 250lb bombs filled with TNT
- 9,022 cases of fragmentation bombs
- 7,739 semi-armour piercing bombs
- 1,522 cases of fuzes
- 1,429 cases of phosphorus bombs
- 1,427 cases of 100lb demolition bombs
- 817 cases of small arms ammunition
- 240 mustard gas bombs
It travelled from the Delaware river to the Thames Estuary, then anchored while awaiting the formation of a convoy to travel to Cherbourg, France, which had already fallen to the Allies (on July 27, 1944) during the Battle of Normandy.
When it arrived off Southend, it came under the authority of the Thames naval control at HMS Leigh, located at the end of the Southend Pier. The harbour master, responsible for all shipping movements in the estuary, ordered the Montgomery to a berth off the north edge of Sheerness middle sands, where it ran aground in a depth of 24 ft. (7.3 m) of water at low tide.
The general dry cargo liberty ship had an average draught of 28 ft (8.5 m), the Montgomery was trimmed to a draught of 31 ft (9.4 m) however, and at low water, at the height of a spring tide with a northerly wind it was inevitable the ship would run aground at its shallow mooring.
When it ran aground on August 20, 1944, the Montgomery broke its back on sand banks near the Isle of Sheppey, about 1.5 miles (2.5 km) from Sheerness and 5 miles (8 km) from Southend.
A Rochester-based Stevedore Company was given the job of removing the cargo, which began on August 23, 1944 using the ship's own cargo handling equipment. By the next day, the ship's hull had cracked open, causing several cargo holds at the bow end to flood. The salvage operation continued until September 25, when the ship was finally abandoned. Subsequently, the ship broke into two separate parts, roughly at the mid-section.
During the enquiry that followed, it was revealed that several ships moored nearby had noticed the Montgomery drifting toward the sandbank. They had attempted to signal an alert by sounding their sirens without avail, since throughout this Captain Wilkie of the Montgomery was asleep. The ship's chief officer was unable to explain why he had not alerted the captain.
Due to the presence of the large quantity of unexploded ordnance, the ship is monitored by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. In 1973 it became the first wreck designated as dangerous under section 2 of the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 and there is an exclusion zone around it monitored visually and by radar.[1] The Maritime and Coastguard Agency nevertheless believe that the risk of a major explosion is remote.[2] The UK government's Receiver of Wreck commissioned a risk assessment in 1999, but this risk assessment has not been published (as reported in the New Scientist, 21 August 2004). The Maritime and Coastguard Agency convened with local and port authorities to discuss the report in 2001 and concluded that "doing nothing was not an option for much longer."
3,173 tons of munitions containing 1,400 tons of TNT remain on the wreck. One of the reasons why the explosives have not been removed was the unfortunate outcome of a similar operation in July 1967 to neutralize the contents of the Kielce, a ship of Polish origin, sunk in 1946 off Folkestone in the English Channel. During preliminary work the Kielce, containing a comparable amount of ordnance, exploded with force equivalent to an earthquake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale, digging a 20-foot (6 m) deep crater in the seabed and bringing "panic and chaos" to Folkestone, although no injuries.
According to a BBC news report,[3] in 1970 it was determined that if the wreck of the SS Richard Montgomery exploded, it would throw a 1000-foot (300 m) wide column of water and debris nearly 10,000 feet (3,000 m) in the air and generate a wave 16 feet (5 m) high. This would be the biggest ever non-nuclear explosion in history.
Critics of government assurances that the likelihood of a major explosion is remote argue that there is a possibility that over time a partially flooded fuze in at least one of the 2600 fuzed fragmentation devices will become less stable owing to its lead azide constituent reacting with water vapour (rather than liquid seawater) to form hydrazoic acid. This will react with copper in the detonating cap, to form extremely sensitive copper azide.[4] A knock, such as caused by the ship breaking up further, or a collision on the busy shipping lane, could cause the copper azide to explode, triggering an explosive chain reaction resulting in the detonation of the bulk of the munitions.
Similarly, when the condition of the munitions was originally assessed there was concern that copper azide would be produced through reaction between the lead azide and copper from brass fuse components. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency argue that the fuses will probably have been flooded for many years and consequently the hazard is insignificant since these chemicals are water soluble[5] and will have been washed away.
The wreck site has been surveyed regularly since 1965 to determine the stability of the structure, with the most recent diver survey being completed in 2003.[6] There have been subsequent high-resolution multi-beam sonar surveys in 2005 and September 2006 which have confirmed that no significant movement of the wreck has taken place recently. The Department for Transport has stated that it also needs to commission a survey of the munitions still on board; this survey has not been done yet.
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Richard_Montgomery
http://www.ssrichardmontgomery.com/images/suntimes.htm
Should anything be done with the SS Richard Montgomery? What?
Your thoughts and opinions please.
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The SS Richard Montgomery - a disaster waiting to happen? - 
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