Falling Down the Thames Blog 46, 28th January 2015
Kaboom!
Richard Montgomery was born on 2 December 1738 in County Dublin, Ireland. He died on 31 December 1775. Montgomery perished on the field of battle while serving in the American War of Independence at the rank of Major General. When it comes to the upcoming paddling adventure of Krista and me, none of this has anything to do with the River Thames. Except…
On June 15 of 1943 the Liberty class ship SS Richard Montgomery was launched from the St. Johns River Shipbuilding Company in Jacksonville, Florida. One year two months and five days later it lay, wrecked, on a sandbank in the Thames Estuary. On Sunday May 3, Krista and I are going to paddle straight past the remains of the Richard Montgomery as part of our adventure called Falling Down the Thames.
When she left port in the United States, the Montgomery was loaded with about 6,000 tonnes of munitions which were to be used in the WWII Battle of Normandy. She was anchored in the estuary awaiting the formation of a convey to sail to France. Regrettably her anchor dragged across the estuary’s bottom, and she ran aground on a sandbank.
Within days, efforts began to offload the ship’s deadly cargo, but her hull soon cracked and the cargo holds flooded. Recovery efforts were abandoned a month later with about one-quarter of her cargo of bombs still onboard. The Montgomery then broke in half. There she sits today, seventy-one years later, less than three kilometres from the coastal community of Sheerness, with her masts still visible above the water at all tides.
In 2013 Peter Sherlock posted a report about the wreck of the Montgomery for BBC News. It seems that the airports in and around London are stretched to capacity, and a new giant airport is badly needed to serve the region. With four runways, a gigantic new airport might handle 150 millions passengers each year. By comparison, Heathrow currently deals with just 60 million.
Where might such a super-airport be located? Some have suggested that it be a floating airport, situated on the Thames Estuary. Others feel that a more traditional airport on land adjacent to the estuary would be most suitable. In either case, the Montgomery poses a big problem. Sherlock wrote: “Who would risk building the world’s largest airport near a ticking time-bomb under the waves?”
With or without an airport, the upper decks of the Montgomery might corrode to the point where they dumped bombs on others on lower decks, causing a catastrophic explosion. The waterway is a busy one, and a ship off course might run into the Montgomery. The bombs that remain on board the Montgomery could serve as a target for terrorists. Experts disagree on whether to attempt to offload the munitions, encase the ship in sand, or just leave things as they are.
Not that Krista and I will be able to paddle right up to the Montgomery. We will need to ensure that we do not get within 500 metres of the wreck. An exclusion zone around the vessel is monitored continuously, and Krista and I would risk prosecution if we violated the exclusion order. As much as I like the idea of pinning a peace flag to one of Montgomery’s masts, I am not willing to go to jail for it.
- Glen
Photo credits: SS Richard Montgomery leaving New York – www.ssrichardmontgomery.com; wrecked ship – forums.airshows.co.uk; warning! – www.panoramio.com