SS Richard Montgomery

One wreck I have not dived

SS Richard Montgomery was an American Liberty ship, one of the 2,710 used to carry cargo during the war. She left Hog Island, Philadelphia in August of 1944 on what was to be her final voyage, she had been loaded with 6,400 tons of explosive shells for the war effort. She made her way to the Thames Estuary where she anchored in her resting place.

When Richard Montgomery arrived off Southend she came under the authority of the Thames naval control at HMS Leigh located at the end of Southend Pier The Harbourmaster, responsible for all shipping movements in the estuary, ordered the ship to a berth off the north edge of Sheerness. On 20 August 1944, she dragged her anchor and ran aground on a sandbank around 250 metres from the Medway Approach Channel, in a depth of 20 m of water. As the tide went out, SS Montgomery broke her back on sand banks near the Isle of Sheppey about 1.5 miles from Sheerness and 5 miles from Southend. A Rochester based company was given the job of removing the cargo, which began on 23 August 1944, using the ship's own cargo handling equipment. By the next day, the ship's hull had started to cracked open, causing several cargo holds at the bow end to flood. The salvage operation continued until 25 September, when the ship was finally abandoned before all the munitions had been recovered. Subsequently, the vessel broke into two separate parts, roughly at the midsection.

During the enquiry following the shipwreck it was revealed that several ships moored nearby had noticed Richard Montgomery drifting towards the sandbank. They had attempted to signal an alert by sounding their sirens, but without avail because Captain Wilkie of Richard Montgomery was asleep. The ship's chief officer was unable to explain why he had not alerted the captain. A Board of Inquiry concluded that the anchorage the harbour master assigned had placed the ship in jeopardy, and returned the captain of Richard Montgomery to full duty within a week.

The Montgomery was declared an official secret by the government up until the 1950s - despite widespread awareness of its existence. The Montgomery today lies about 1.5 miles off Sheerness in Kent, Access to the wreck is prohibited under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 and is protected by a 500m exclusion zone. This has not stopped people visiting the site. People in small crafts still try to visit the site and most get arrested as the site today is protected by sensors. It is estimated the wreck still has some 13,700 explosive devices on board, mostly aircraft bombs which is made up of 286 of 2,000 lb bombs, 4,435 of 1,000 lb bombs and 2,500 cluster bombs which equates to about 1,400 tonnes of TNT that's about one twelfth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Japan. If the munitions exploded it would be one of the biggest non-nuclear blasts ever and could devastate the port and the town of Sheerness.

In 1970, MOD tests on the site showed a blast could hurl a 1,000 ft wide column of water, mud, metal and munitions almost 10,000 ft into the air. The shock of the blast would shatter almost every window in Sheerness and damage buildings. Plus it is thought could send a 16-foot tsunami could sweep up the Thames towards London. Over the years there have been about 40 cases reported of flames on the water around the wreck This would be caused by the white waxy phosphorus leaking from bombs and catching fire when it reaches the surface. This is still not thought to pose a threat to the munitions on board under water.

Today The Maritime & Coastguard Agency are responsible for policing the wreck. The big question who will take responsibility for what happens if it all goes wrong? and lastly some say the amount of munitions could be many more tons of TNT.

In 1964 experts blew up the SS Kielce munitions ship off the coast of Folkestone. Around 100 tonnes of explosive went up causing a magnitude 4.5 earthquake and 47-metre long, six-metre deep crater in the sea bed and a 150-metre high column of water - damaging buildings in the town. The SS Montgomery has ten times that amount.

One other bit of info that falls into the conspiracy theory. The Montgomery may still hold a stock of mustard gas shells that had been kept back in case Germany started to use the gas. Do a search via Google with the search string Mustard Gas, Wales....... This would be a real good reason to leave well alone and let it degrade over time.

(line added 21/08/2019) While these facts have stopped divers exploring this Liberty ship it also put paid to Boris Island. A key stumbling block is believed to have been the enormous cost of clearing the Montgomery. We just need another Montgomery to stop Boris's Brexit on October 31st 2019.