The Montgomery again

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Doineann

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saw this on the BBC

Seems the Montgomery is starting to break up.

One day she is going to have to be sorted out one assumes (though how?), or do we just wave bye bye to Sheerness and Southend?
 
I remember sitting on the beach at Southend as a kid in the 50s, hearing the grownups saying that RM could blow up at any time. I just hoped it would wait until we got back to the Ford Prefect!
It's taking it's time and some of the tension has now gone out of the story.
 
But is it really dangerous? Surely the explosive would have become non viable by now. Whenever I see bomb disposal team detonate a WW2 mine on TV the explosion seems remarkably small i.e. only the demolition charge.
I know I live a lot more than 7 miles away but my money would be on "nothing happening" if the wreck collapsed.........possibly :)
 
I also wondered if it would be dangerous after this time. In particular it seemed odd for them to build that liquid gas terminal in the Medway quite close to the RM if there was a danger of it going up.

But if it isn't dangerous, why don't they move it?

I have heard various stories which may explain, one being that it is a war grave, the other that becasue the RM was a lend lease boat the Americans have to pay for anyhting to be done and keep putting it off, neither of which sounded very plausable
 
Not a war grave, the Richard Montgomery went aground and broke her back when the tide ebbed. AFAIK there was no loss of life at the time.
 
Leighb said:
Not a war grave, the Richard Montgomery went aground and broke her back when the tide ebbed. AFAIK there was no loss of life at the time.
Click to expand...

According to Wikipedia, she grounded after dragging her anchor. Other vessels saw what was happening and sounded sirens to try to alert alert the crew. The skipper was asleep and the Chief Officer was 'unable to explain' why he hadn't alerted the captain.

"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."
 
I suspect this publicity has a lot to do with the Boris Airport PR department. They've recognised that it could be a big obstacle so have tried to kickstart the process of getting it removed.
Cynical?
Moi?
 
Habebty said:
But is it really dangerous? Surely the explosive would have become non viable by now. Whenever I see bomb disposal team detonate a WW2 mine on TV the explosion seems remarkably small i.e. only the demolition charge.
I know I live a lot more than 7 miles away but my money would be on "nothing happening" if the wreck collapsed.........possibly :)
Click to expand...

I think it might vary. I've seen a couple of WW2 ordnance being destroyed. One was on the edge of St Peter's flats near Bradwell (we were close enough to watch the Bomb Desposal RIB bugger off PDQ). The other was off the Sunk, where we were at least a couple of miles away. In both cases we felt a heavy thump through the hull and saw a spectacular column of water - definitely not just a demolition charge.
 
dabsolute470 said:
Just a thought but why cant we get America to pay for the clean up of their mess !!!
if we left a mess in there waters they would make us pay......
Click to expand...

It would be a bit churlish really, they were, after all, giving us a bit of a helping hand to sort out a certain Herr Hitler at the time! :)
 
Brigantia said:
It would be a bit churlish really, they were, after all, giving us a bit of a helping hand to sort out a certain Herr Hitler at the time! :)
Click to expand...

Besides, if you crashed your lease car, Ford wouldn't clear up the mess.....:p

I think its a delicious waiting game.
My Mum had a bungalow at Swalecliffe, and some of the whizz bangs from across the water on Shoebury would rattle the windows. Wonder how much they would rattle if the RM went up?:eek:
 
FullCircle said:
Besides, if you crashed your lease car, Ford wouldn't clear up the mess.....:p
Click to expand...

Umm, I thought they were American bombs for American guns and the RM was under US command and flag - might be wrong but I seem to recall that. If you sink your P & J, you are responsible for clearing the wreck. Isn't that basic maritime law in this country?
 
One puzzling point. The BBC report says the RM is laying in 15m of water.

Fifteen! On the East Coast? I'd get vertigo:eek:
 
Last edited:
Doineann said:
One puzzling point. The BBC report says the RM is laying in 15m of water.

Fifteen! On the East Coast? I'd get vertigo:eek:
Click to expand...

This is a clip of the C-Map chart, very variable depths around the wreck but 15m shown in one area.

R-Mchart.jpg
 
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