Sunken munitions ship survey released
The Liberty Ship SS Richard Montgomery, loaded with munitions, lies only a quarter of a mile from the main channel into the River Medway.
A local Freedom of Information request has provided an update on the condition of a sunken munitions ship that presents a potential risk to a large area of east Kent UK.
It suggests that the risks associated with the current policy of monitoring only, may soon become greater than one of active intervention.
In 1944, the US built Liberty Ship SS Richard Montgomery, loaded with munitions, completed a passage from the USA to the UK. After anchoring in the Great Nore Anchorage off Sheerness in Kent, and on the next tide, it dragged its anchor, grounding north of the Medway Approach Channel. The ship broke in two and a subsequent attempt to salvage the aft section was later abandoned. Approximately 1,400 tons Net Explosive Quantity of munitions remain in the forepart of the vessel, including over 2,000 cases of cluster fragmentation bombs, nearly six hundred 500 pound bombs, and over one thousand 1,000 pound SAP bombs (TNT).
Today the wreck remains where it sunk, its masts clearly visible above water, a quarter of a mile and one mile respectively from the main channels into the Medway and Thames rivers, within a prohibited area surrounded by 16 marker buoys and monitored from the shore. The wreck has become part of local folklore, with predictions of significant damage and destruction (up to £1bn) over an area of ten miles radius should the cargo detonate.
The shipis surveyed periodically, this latest MCA Summary Report covering the 2008 and 2009 surveys carried out by NetSurvey Ltd using a Reson Seabat 7125 multibeam sonar unit. The main findings are that the ship is fully supported by seabed sediment, its orientation, list and pitch unchanged from previous surveys. There is a one to two metre increase in the main crack in the hull at hold 2, while a new aperture, found in the 2008 survey in the aft bulkhead of hold 3, has not increased in size. The two surveys show a drop of over half a metre in the collapsed deck plating of hatch 2, the crack from this area now extending all the way along the deck and down the starboard side of the hull, suggesting there could be a complete loss of structural integrity in this area at some point in the future, possibly leading to this section breaking in two.
The overall conclusion is that the hull is reasonably stable but with slow and continual deterioration, the rate of which is more accelerated in some areas of the hull. The munitions are considered stable if left undisturbed and, while difficult to predict the effect of more intrusive work, the report recognises there may be a point in time when the risks associated with non-intervention will become greater than those of a carefully planned intervention operation such as dealing with escaping cargo, or imminent or actual structural collapse.
By Peter Barker
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