Richard Montgomery

[CalicoJack]

Medway VTS were asking vessels to slow down yesterday as there was a survey going on on the Montgomery. Does anyone know whats going on. Was it just a routine survey, or have the authorities become worried because of something that has happened over the winter?

Nigel

 

[tillergirl]

Curiously there is no NtM on it. They are pretty regular with their surveys so it might be routine but I think they normally announce those.

 

[Niffler]

Is it true that there is enough explosive there to blow up the Medway Towns if it goes bang?

 

[pyrojames]

And a large section of France according to some!

 

[sailorman]

And a large section of France according to some!

Good it will have parliment as well then :encouragement:

 

[tillergirl]

If it did, then the local newspaper could copy the headline that the Dudley Bugle did (can't remember the real name) several years back. "Earthquake hits Dudley: £3 million's worth of improvements made"

 

[Capt Popeye]

Is it true that there is enough explosive there to blow up the Medway Towns if it goes bang?

Err and Canvey Island, Foulness, South end upon Sea, Isle of Sheppey, Isle of Grain, and a tidal wave up to the Thames Barrier, all in one day, phew, what price housing in these areas ?

 

[johnalison]

A lady friend of ours was doing her radio course some years ago. When they came to the emergency exercise, which was done in pairs, she and her friend cooked up a tale of drifting with engine failure in the Thames in fog. They only slowly released bits of information until they "drifted" past one of the Montgomery buoys, which caused a lot of hilarity.

 

[Poignard]

Err and Canvey Island, Foulness, South end upon Sea, Isle of Sheppey, Isle of Grain, and a tidal wave up to the Thames Barrier, all in one day, phew, what price housing in these areas ?

UKIP territory. :encouragement:

 

[Cantata]

The MCA organise an annual survey of the the thing, I think, to see how many more bombs have rolled out of it.
I used to race in an annual regatta which often used the Montgomery buoyed zone as a race mark.

 

[xyachtdave]

I don't claim to be an explosives expert but surely something left in seawater for nearly 70 years isn't going to work?

They were probably checking the best fishing spots....

 

[Cantata]

I don't claim to be an explosives expert but surely something left in seawater for nearly 70 years isn't going to work?

They were probably checking the best fishing spots....

When I was on the CG, we noticed that WWII mortar bombs etc turned out by the tide along here still seemed to make a satisfactory bang, or that could have been just the modern plastic stuff that the army wrapped round them. The best one was an anti-tank grenade found near Reculver, which the army boys actually declined to touch (as had I), blowing it up in place at the foot of the cliff, precipitating a nice, er, precipitation.

 

[Tomahawk]

Used to know Jimbo of Medway Diving.. they usualy went down every year and took the outlying ones away..

 

[Doineann]

As to what would happen, the experience with the Kielce off of Folkestone is the best guide
There is plenty about it on the web, such as
http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=1990.0

 

[Leighb]

Ammunition that old certainly still goes bang very satisfactorily, WW2 mines are often found on the East Coast and detonated, so no reason to suppose that none of the Richard Montgomery's cargo is still live.

A 4.5inch AA shell was unearthed in my neighbour's garden a couple of years ago. The bomb squad removed it to a neighbouring field where it made a significant bang! (Admittedly that had not been in salt water.

 

[xyachtdave]

...

Ammunition that old certainly still goes bang very satisfactorily, WW2 mines are often found on the East Coast and detonated, so no reason to suppose that none of the Richard Montgomery's cargo is still live.

A 4.5inch AA shell was unearthed in my neighbour's garden a couple of years ago. The bomb squad removed it to a neighbouring field where it made a significant bang! (Admittedly that had not been in salt water.

Well there's really only one way to test the potential explosiveness of these munitions and be sure.......Kaboom!

 

[DavidofMersea]

Ammunition that old certainly still goes bang very satisfactorily, .

But what goes bang, the old ammo or the charge the Army places next to it?

 

[Cantata]

When I was on the CG, the army EOD used to tell me at the time if the resulting bang was only their stuff, or if the old explosive had also detonated. About 50% of the time, as I recall. Frequent enough to be wary of carrying the things around. Whichever, their aim each time they dealt with items down our way (mostly 2" mortars) was to ensure the original was vaporised.

 

[Gargleblaster]

The Montgomery would perhaps not make as big a bang as the one at Halifax Canada during the Great War, which was all fresh ammunition. That explosion is rated as the biggest man made explosion before nuclear weapons and was I believe in a much more built up part of Halifax. Of course Sheerness and the Isle of Sheppey population would be at risk, but I wonder about the Medway towns. I rather hope 'Raven' my boat in Gillingham Reach would survive the explosion and the subsequent 'tidal' wave or what might actually be a true Tsunami [or Harbour wave].

'The Halifax Explosion occurred in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, on the morning of December 6, 1917. SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship fully loaded with wartime explosives, was involved in a collision with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo in the Narrows, a strait connecting the upper Halifax Harbour to Bedford Basin. Approximately twenty minutes later, a fire on board the French ship ignited her explosive cargo, causing a cataclysmic explosion that devastated the Richmond District of Halifax. Approximately 2,000 people were killed by debris, fires, and collapsed buildings, and it is estimated that nearly 9,000 others were injured.[1] The blast was the largest man-made explosion prior to the development of nuclear weapons,[2] with an equivalent force of roughly 2.9 kilotons of TNT.[3] In a meeting of the Royal Society of Canada in May 1918, Dalhousie University's Professor Howard L. Bronson estimated the blast at some 2400 metric tons of high explosive.' [from Wikipedia]

 

[Leighb]

But what goes bang, the old ammo or the charge the Army places next to it?

I did not witness the bang from the AA shell as, sadly, I was away. However I have seen mine detonations on TV several times and the blasts were impressive, I am sure the demolition charges used are relatively small?