SS Richard Montgomery
WWII ship the SS Richard Montgomery’s cargo could blow up at any moment
If you walk along the banks of the River Thames in Sheerness, Kent, you can see three ship’s masts sticking out from the water. At first glance they look harmless, just a rusting relic of a disaster from days past, but look closer and you’ll see signs warning of the danger beneath. The masts belong to the SS Richard Montgomery, a US Liberty ship used during World War Two. With a hold stocked full of munitions, it arrived in the Thames Estuary in August 1944, but severe weather caused it to drag its anchor and fill with water. As the tide receded the ship was left stranded on the sand bank, and its hull soon began to buckle and crack under the weight of the cargo. A salvage operation was quickly launched, but in September 1944 this had to be abandoned when the ship finally broke in two and sank. Half of the cargo had successfully been removed, but the rest – an estimated 1,400 tons of munitions – is still lying on the riverbed today. If it detonates, it could send a catastrophic tsunami up the Thames, destroying everything in its path. One of the biggest risks of detonation is the collapse of the remaining wreckage, so the UK’S Maritime and Coastguard Agency conducts an annual survey to monitor its condition. Recent findings show that the wreck is indeed slowly deteriorating, but as removing the ship’s cargo is likely to be a complicated and dangerous mission, it is safer to leave it alone for now.