SS Richard Montgomery
Discussion
Apologies if this is common knowledge to Londoners and/or the sailors on here, but I'd never heard of it and found the story intriguing.
A while back, my uncle Tony (one of those people who never fails to come up with a randomly interesting story)told me about the wreck of a wartime ship in the Thames that still contains a thousand or so tonnes of explosives, which, if detonated would cause some kind of tidal wave which could flood parts of London. I'm guessing this is it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Richard_Montgomery
Cheers,
A while back, my uncle Tony (one of those people who never fails to come up with a randomly interesting story)told me about the wreck of a wartime ship in the Thames that still contains a thousand or so tonnes of explosives, which, if detonated would cause some kind of tidal wave which could flood parts of London. I'm guessing this is it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Richard_Montgomery
Cheers,
FourWheelDrift said:
NDT said:
Although in reality, if the stuff's been there 65 years then it's unlikely to spontaneously go pop now is it?
Not unless a recently pirated & hijacked container ship that's gone missing in the English Channel were to run into it. 
If it went up they reckon it would be the biggest explosion ever outside of nuclear and, dependant on the state of the tide at the time, 30 foot tsunamis into Sheppey and Southend.
It's been hit once so far with a coaster running through the middle and taking off the gun turret. Edges of shipping channels are only 100m either side. Given the propensity for drunken polish sailors to run into Southend pier it's bloody amazing it hasn't been hit more times already.
She was carrying about 7500 tonnes of explosives when she broke her back on the sands and nobody knows to this day how much they got in the salvage operation but it's estimated to be less than half.
Fragmentation Bombs overlying 250lb TNT bombs, some with fuses installed and some not. Coastguards in 2001 said doing nothing wasn't an option for much longer but nobody has a solution.
Good fishing spot though!
It's been hit once so far with a coaster running through the middle and taking off the gun turret. Edges of shipping channels are only 100m either side. Given the propensity for drunken polish sailors to run into Southend pier it's bloody amazing it hasn't been hit more times already.
She was carrying about 7500 tonnes of explosives when she broke her back on the sands and nobody knows to this day how much they got in the salvage operation but it's estimated to be less than half.
Fragmentation Bombs overlying 250lb TNT bombs, some with fuses installed and some not. Coastguards in 2001 said doing nothing wasn't an option for much longer but nobody has a solution.
Good fishing spot though!
The sand bank it's on actually sits in the approaches to the Medway so you will go shore side if you're deep draft or seaward side for shallow draft shipping.
Couple it up with this and you get an idea of how much heavy shipping goes past daily. (bearing in mind not all shipping has AIS linked into this yet)
http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/
Webcam gives an idea
http://www.iossc.org.uk/weather/index.php
It's constantly monitored by sheerness both radar and visual and they don't feck about if you get too close.
Couple it up with this and you get an idea of how much heavy shipping goes past daily. (bearing in mind not all shipping has AIS linked into this yet)
http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/
Webcam gives an idea
http://www.iossc.org.uk/weather/index.php
It's constantly monitored by sheerness both radar and visual and they don't feck about if you get too close.
B16JUS said:
its not actually that well marked up as a stay clear zone, has anyone been to the war towers off the thames near the wind farm they are huge.
Regularly all six of the towers, but which wind farm? The Thames is becoming littered with them. Have a google at the London array which is the proposed extension to the one they haven't even finished on Gunfleet sands. Fecking greenies, still makes me feel all warm inside taking the 8.2 litre V8 out just to have a look at them
MOTORVATOR said:
B16JUS said:
its not actually that well marked up as a stay clear zone, has anyone been to the war towers off the thames near the wind farm they are huge.
Regularly all six of the towers, but which wind farm? The Thames is becoming littered with them. Have a google at the London array which is the proposed extension to the one they haven't even finished on Gunfleet sands. Fecking greenies, still makes me feel all warm inside taking the 8.2 litre V8 out just to have a look at them
MOTORVATOR said:
B16JUS said:
its not actually that well marked up as a stay clear zone, has anyone been to the war towers off the thames near the wind farm they are huge.
Regularly all six of the towers, but which wind farm? The Thames is becoming littered with them. Have a google at the London array which is the proposed extension to the one they haven't even finished on Gunfleet sands. Fecking greenies, still makes me feel all warm inside taking the 8.2 litre V8 out just to have a look at them
Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 13th August 21:56
MOTORVATOR said:
Regularly all six of the towers, but which wind farm? The Thames is becoming littered with them. Have a google at the London array which is the proposed extension to the one they haven't even finished on Gunfleet sands.
Fecking greenies, still makes me feel all warm inside taking the 8.2 litre V8 out just to have a look at them
Is it possible for 'normal' people to get out to them (without becoming subjects of sealand)?Fecking greenies, still makes me feel all warm inside taking the 8.2 litre V8 out just to have a look at them
mcdjl said:
MOTORVATOR said:
Regularly all six of the towers, but which wind farm? The Thames is becoming littered with them. Have a google at the London array which is the proposed extension to the one they haven't even finished on Gunfleet sands.
Fecking greenies, still makes me feel all warm inside taking the 8.2 litre V8 out just to have a look at them
Is it possible for 'normal' people to get out to them (without becoming subjects of sealand)?Fecking greenies, still makes me feel all warm inside taking the 8.2 litre V8 out just to have a look at them
mcdjl said:
MOTORVATOR said:
Regularly all six of the towers, but which wind farm? The Thames is becoming littered with them. Have a google at the London array which is the proposed extension to the one they haven't even finished on Gunfleet sands.
Fecking greenies, still makes me feel all warm inside taking the 8.2 litre V8 out just to have a look at them
Is it possible for 'normal' people to get out to them (without becoming subjects of sealand)?Fecking greenies, still makes me feel all warm inside taking the 8.2 litre V8 out just to have a look at them
http://subterrain.org.uk/maunsell/part3.html
But in reality any fishing trip out of wallasea, leigh or kent coast will go past some of them.
There were six forts in the Thames area, 3 navy and 3 army, Sealand as it is now is closer off harwich and was a further navy fort. You can buy a passport online if you like and you're even allowed to have your own title like "Grand Master of Sealand" etc for the right price
We've got an amazing bit of history round this litle bit of coast like:
Gunners Park Shoebury where artillery was developed since 1850 as the people the opposite side of the Thames from Woolwich Arsenal were getting pissed off from them testing once they could hit the other side.
The Boom which stretched out both sides of the Thames over the drying sands and was connected by steel mesh strung across the water on barges to catch submarines.
The Mulberry Harbour which was one the phoenix units due to go to the D Day landings but didn't make it as it broke it's back
Goodwin Sands which has the highest concentration of wrecks anywhere in the world. See a map of them and it is astounding just how many there are (in the thousands).
Foulness Island which to this day still carries out artillery testing and all sorts of blowing stuff up in a top secret environment.
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