True Swords of Damocles: these are the masts of the sunken American ship “SS Richard Montgomery” that emerge from the gray waters of the Thames estuary, in Kent.
The flagpoles, heavily inclined and gnawed with rust, are unapproachable within a radius of 800 meters and the reason is obvious: the wreck from which they emerge conserves 1400 tons of ammunition, to be precise 2,000 crates of cluster bombs and 208 tons of bombs. containing TNT.
In fact, several signs warn: “Danger – ammunition did not explode – Do not approach and do not board this wreck”.
The risk, however, is that today, those old trees, now corroded by rust, could collapse on the hull, causing the war material to explode: this would cause a tsunami at least five meters high that could devastate the Kent coast and the surrounding areas.
According to the UK Department of Transport, a possible submarine explosion could raise a water column 300 m wide and almost 3,000 m high to the surface; for the British Ministry of Defense, civilian deaths and damage to gas and oil pipelines around Sheerness could occur.
Now, that the explosion can occur spontaneously is very unlikely, however, in addition to the possibility of a collision resulting from the ruin of a flagpole, there is the risk of attacks to be considered. Nor should it be too difficult to clandestinely reach the wreck to undermine it: just think that, recently, a “paddle boarder” (a sort of surfer with a paddle) managed to reach the site, evading surveillance to take a selfie among the trees soaring on the sea.
One of the reasons why the explosives have not been removed to date was the unfortunate outcome of a similar operation that was organized in July 1967 to neutralize the contents of the Polish freighter Kielce, which sank in 1946, off the coast of Folkestone, in the Canal. of the Channel.
During preliminary work, the Kielce wreck exploded with a force equivalent to an earthquake of 4.5 on the Richter scale, carving a 6m deep crater in the seabed and bringing “panic and chaos” to Folkestone, although there were no wounded.
For this reason, until now it has been preferred to leave everything as it was. However, the rust ran its course, so the Royal Navy was tasked with dismantling the masts atop the wreck of the SS Richard Montgomery. The works will start in June 2022 and are expected to last two months.
The Montgomery was one of the 2,710 Liberty-class merchant ships built by the US to transport weapons and materials to the European theater of war: they were Spartan ships, of fast construction, and became the symbol of that American industrial power that would prevail over the forces of ‘Axis.
This freighter did not sink due to a fight, otherwise it would have blown up, but – apparently – due to a mistake by the British port commander, responsible for all maritime movements in the estuary, who ordered the ship to dock off the northern border. of Sheerness Middle Sands, in an unsuitable area.
In fact, on August 20, 1944, the Montgomery, dragging her anchor, ended up stranded on a sand bank about 250 m from the Medway Approach channel, at a depth of 7.3 m of water.
The commander was asleep and was not warned in time by the first officer, who was still quite inexperienced.
Thus, an attempt was made to empty the ship of its load of bombs, but, with the ebbing of the tide, the very weight of the hull broke the Montgomery in half which, on September 25, had to be abandoned to its fate.
In June, however, no trace of that event will remain visible on the surface.
Andrea Cionci