SHIP FEARS
Warning ‘WW2 doomsday wreck’ could EXPLODE at any moment & unleash tidal wave at London if Thames timebomb isn’t tackled
A recent survey found the main body of the ship is collapsing
EXPERTS have warned a "doomsday wreck" could explode any moment and unleash a tsunami in the Thames.
The SS Richard Montgomery sank near Sheerness, Kent, in August 1944 taking some 1,400 tons of WW2 explosives to the seabed.
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Her masts still loom above the water line in the Thames Estuary and plans are in place to remove them.
If they collapse on to the wreck they could trigger an explosion - but experts say it's not enough.
With a new survey revealing the main body of the ship is collapsing the government has been urged to go further and remove the bombs themselves before it's too late.
Professor David Alexander of University College London (UCL) authored a study about the threat of the wreck and believes removing the masts is insufficient.
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He said: "I don't think that's going to solve the problem. Probably the biggest risk is shipping runs into it.
"The exclusion zone is 200m from a major shipping lane through which large container ships pass and, much more seriously, liquefied natural gas ships.
"These are five stories high and contain enormous tanks of liquefied natural gas."
He cited the example of the Mare Altum - a Danish-flagged chemical tanker that was on a collision course with the wreck when it was diverted with only minutes to spare.
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It was one of two near-misses within a single week in May 1980 coming just days after the British-registered MV Fletching came within 15 metres of the wreck.
He also raised concerns about the risk of terrorism and the ongoing decay of the ship.
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A 1970 report from the Royal Military College of Science predicted the outcome if the whole explosive cache detonated at once.
It would unleash a column of water and debris 3,000m high and a 5m tsunami engulfing nearby Sheerness, the report said.
Dr Alexander, Professor of Emergency Planning and Management, called on the government to clear the ship of explosives.
It's a view shared by David Welch, formerly of the Royal Navy, now a senior explosives officer at bomb disposal company Ramora.
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Though he believes it's "nigh on impossible" for the whole cargo to detonate at once he warned that the explosives won't be contained for much longer.
He said: "I do think that someone's going to have to do something soon, in the next decade, or we're going to miss the boat."
He added: "The wreck is falling apart, as all wrecks do, and munitions are falling out of it.
"Over time, that's only going to get worse and then you'll end up with an uncontained area of munitions."
He continued: "If you fast forward 100 years the likelihood is the wreck won't be there but the pile of munitions will.
"At the moment you've got everything stacked relatively neatly in a structure that still has some integrity and therefore you could stage a clearance operation.
"As soon as the wreck falls apart and all those munitions spread out on the seabed it's much more challenging."
It comes after a recent survey found further signs of collapse in the ship all observed in the previous year.
These included the "whole forward section of the wreck" which lies in two halves on the bottom leaning 10 to 15cm further eastward as "supporting sediment is eroded away".
A crack along the second cargo hold had also grown 5cm wider and 37cm longer since the previous survey and was "significantly buckled" further down.
Meanwhile the back half of the ship was "potentially breaking in two about halfway along its length" with a stretch of deck 6m long collapsing over half a metre in one year.
A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said the wreck was under constant monitoring.
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In its statement the department added that there was "no indication" that the further degradation of the ship ";has increased the risk" associated with it.
They also highlighted the much-delayed plan to remove the masts saying they would work with a contractor to create a revised plan anticipated "within the next year".
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