Montgomery
A little girl, my grandmother, Winifred, used to take us to Southend for days out. A favourite would be a walk alon g the pier, stretching a mile into the estuary. In 1944 The end of that pier had been home to HMS Leigh, Naval control responsible for controlling the movement of ships in the estuary. On the night of August 1944, just 11 weeks after D-Day
Lieut.-Cdr Walmsley Directed The captain of The SS Richard Montgomery, Captain Charles Wilkie, to anchor his vessel at the nore Anchorage to anchor, despite her draught being such that she would run aground at low tide. The commander’s walmsley’s deputy, Roger Foley, advised against this order, but was overruled, so consequently the ship ran aground, firmly wedged on a sandbank off Sheerness, her back broken. Abandoned in September 1944, she was partly unloaded, sank deeper, and, with stevedores demanding extra ‘danger money’, no further unloading took place.
There remains an estimated 1400 tons of explosive on board , though some estimates as high 5000 tons Her ship’s manifest listed the various explosives on board, including white phosphorus and cluster bombs of 500lbs to 2000lbs in weight.
As a result 5 miles off Southend coast lies a ship the locals call the doomsday wreck or, more affectionately familiarly ‘Monty’.
This ship is the SS Richard Montgomery. Named for an Irish born navy captain who fought for independence against the British, The SS Montgomery is A Liberty class cargo ship. It was bound from The US for convoy to France carrying 6,862 tonnes of bombs.
On the 20th of August 1944 local people of Southend provided board and lodging to the ships fleeing crew as they fled.
The ships captain was already there Having earlierheaded assure to seek a second opinion from the local expert at Sheerness dockyard. Shipping controller Reginald Coward agreed it would be safer to anchor where the estuary had been deep-dredged and there were three solidly-anchored buoys to fasten to.
But a storm was already whipping up the waters of the Thames estuary made it unsafe to risk a return journey in a small boat at night.
And so J C Wilkie and his boatman were to signed in as guests at the Jolly Sailor while his ship and crew had been left under the command of his first officer.
Even as the captain slept in a room above the pub, in the Blue Town area of Sheerness, a calamity was unfolding at sea.
The ship, buffeted by strong winds, was dragging its anchors easily across the muddy seabed. By the time the skipper returned to his vessel on the morning of August 20, she was firmly stuck on a sandbank, with no chance of being refloated.
https://www.southendtimeline.co.uk/southend-timeline-1940-1949-history-of-southend-on-sea.html
https://shewhosails.com/sights-at-sea/ss-richard-montgomery-shipwreck-in-the-thames-estuary/
https://www.wadhursthistorysociety.org/the-wreck-of-the-s-s-richard-montgomery/
The ship is actively monitored and regularly surveyed . A xx hundred meter exclusion zone prevents ships and boats in the area accidentally straying into the wreck which lies close to a shipping lane and very close to the approach channel for the River Medway that many pleasurecraft use .
As a sailor of the Thames history I Have often passed forboding masts piercing the water of the Thames Street just off Kent and clear view of Southend. I have always assumed those masts are metal. But they are not and they’re such it is not just corrosion they are praying to it is biological attack as warm Waters alter the ecology of our oceans with climate change.
They have plans for a number of years to remove these masts so that they do not collapse and detonate the explosion still held in the hull
MoD report says a blast could produce a 16ft tsunami, which would threaten lives - along with vital gas and oil installations on the Kent coastline.An explosion "would throw a 300 metre-wide column of water and debris nearly 3,000 metres into the air and generate a wave five metres high.
To safely remove the munitions now would cost about £300million and would involve building a massive enclosed structure around the wreck, draining off the sea water and air, then pumping inert gas into the enclosure to reduce the risk of explosion. It would be a massive operation, and possibly require evacuation of the towns of Southend and sheerness, which lies below sea level
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