Hi I'm the History Guy, I have a degree in history, I love history and if you love history
too this is the channel for you.
During the Second World War the United States and our allies had the trouble of transportation,
how do we move man and material from the arsenal of democracy across the world's great oceans
to the theatres of war, and one of the ingenious solutions to that problem was the Liberty
Ship.
These were transport vessels that were based originally on an English design and they were
built using modular construction, which means that they could be built in sections that
would be then welded together, and this streamlined construction allowed the United States to
create a staggering two thousand seven hundred and ten Liberty ships between 1941 and 1945,
and that is far and away the most ships ever built on a single design.
And importantly, many of the ships were built by female workers in eighteen different shipyards
in the United States.
Another exciting thing about the Liberty ships is that they were originally designed for
a short shelf life, they had a five year design life, they were just going to be used to carry
stuff across the ocean during the war but many of them successfully operated even to
the 1950s, and some redesigned versions were still operating with the military even into
the 1970s.
In fact there are still three Liberty ships afloat today, all of them floating museums,
but two of them fully seaworthy.
But there is one more Liberty ship that you should know about, the SS Richard Montgomery,
which is submerged in the Thames river with enough high explosives in her hull to create
an explosion that would create a tidal wave that would flood the city of London.
The SS Richard Montgomery was built by the St. Johns River Shipbuilding Company, the
7th Liberty Ship built by that company, she was laid down in March of 1943 and launched
June 15th of that year and she was named after an Irish American general in the U.S. Revolutionary
War.
Like other ships of her design she had a displacement of fourteen thousand four hundred and seventy-four
tons, a length of four hundred and twenty-two feet, and a beam of fifty seven feet, she
had a crew of 45.
In August of 1944 the Montgomery was loaded with nearly 7,000 tons of high explosives,
mostly aerial bombs, at Hogg's Island Philadelphia.
She was eventually bound for the port of Shurberg France, now in allied hands after the Battle
of Normandy.
Importantly Liberty ships usually had a draught of 28 feet but because of her load, she was
trimmed for a draught of 31, feet those three feet would make a difference.
She crossed the Atlantic Ocean without incident and arrived in Southend on the River Thames,
an important hub for shipping in the Second World War on August 20th.
She was supposed to wait there for a convoy to take her across the channel to Shurberg.
The Harbormaster on Southend Pier, in charge of all shipping on the Thames Estuary, ordered
her to berth in an area designated as the Great North Anchorage near the seaside port
town of Sheerness.
There was an argument between the Harbormaster and the Assistant Harbormaster because the
depth at low tide on the sand banks in that Anchorage was less than 30 feet but the Montgomery
had a draught of 31 feet, but the Assistant Harbormaster was overruled.
She dropped anchor and in the night she drifted over one of the sand banks and at low tide
she grounded, buckling some four plates.
Some of the ships in the area had seen her drifting towards the sand banks and had blown
their whistles in warning, but the officer in charge had done nothing to save the ship
and didn't even wake up the captain who was asleep in his bunk.
She would have to wait at least two weeks for a tide high enough to lift her off the
sand bank and even then that would only work if she were to have all of her cargo removed,
and so on August 23rd they started removing the cargo using the ship's own equipment.
But as she sat on the sand bank the stresses were too much for the hull and she cracked
in half and broke on the back, and that caused holds 1 & 2 on the bow end of the ship to
flood.
While they were able to empty the other holds which were still above water, but as the ship
broke apart they abandoned the salvage and left her where she was, with some three and
a half thousand tons of high explosives still on board.
As the ship was obviously a total loss and other ships demanded attention they decided
to abandon the wreck and left the wreck, with three and a half thousand tons of explosives
sitting in the London shipping lanes, apparently assuming that someone else would clean it
up later, but they didn't.
The Montgomery wreck and her three and a half thousand tons, some 9,000 different munitions,
including at least a thousand, huge thousand-pound bombs, still sits in the River Thames today.
So for starters what would happen if all of those munitions blew up in some catastrophic
explosion.
Well, simply put it would be the largest non-nuclear explosion in the history of humanity.
New Scientist magazine did some calculations in 2004 and they determined that if all the
munitions were to explode they would throw debris nearly two miles in the air and create
a tidal wave 30 to 40 feet tall that would go all the way to central London.
Although some experts argue that a catastrophic explosion is unlikely, rather they surmise
that only a few of the large bombs would likely explode and then all that would happen is
that they would throw nine thousand different pieces of decaying world war two high explosives
all over one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.
The official view is that it would be more dangerous to try to remove the explosives
than to just let them be and there's some truth to that, a similar attempt in 1967 to
recover a much smaller wreck of a munition ship four miles offshore created an explosion
that measured 4.5 on the Richter scale.
But there are significant concerns with leaving her where she is, although the heavy bombs
don't have detonators on them, the ship included hundreds of containers of smaller cluster
bombs and those did have their detonators, and they could potentially still be active
so as the wreck decays there's a concern that the containers of cluster bombs could collapse
onto the heavy bombs and cause a catastrophic explosion.
There's a more obscure risk too as there are still mines from World War 2 in the Thames
Estuary and there's a concern that if a mine were to break loose from a frayed cable that
could float into the Montgomery and caused her to explode.
There's also simply the risk of a collision with another ship, she's got a wide exclusion
zone and she's well marked, but there had been several near misses over the years especially
in rough weather.
And the new concern is that the ship and its wreck could be a target for terrorists.
And so the Liberty ship that the people on the nearby town of Sheerness affectionately
call ‘Montey’ sits there in the Thames today, daily testing the theory that inaction
is better than action.
The only real solution which would be a careful removal of the explosives would cost at least
millions of pounds and nobody wants to pay for it, but the longer the ship sits the more
it decays, the more serious the problem becomes, and the more expensive the recovery would
be.
And so perhaps the Richard Montgomery is the world's greatest example of the adage, “Never
put off till tomorrow what you should do today”.
I'm the History Guy.
I hope you enjoyed today's edition of my series five minutes of history, short snippets of
forgotten history five to ten minutes long.
If you did enjoy it then please click the like button that's there on your left.
If you have any questions or comments then write them in the comment section and I will
be happy to respond, and if you want five more minutes of history all you need to do
is put that subscribe button that's on your right.
during the Second World War the United States and our allies had the trouble of transportation
how do we move man and material from the arsenal of democracy across the world's great oceans
to the theatres of war and one of the ingenious solutions to that problem was the Liberty
Ship these were transport vessels that were based originally on an English design and
they were built using modular construction which means that they could be built in sections
that would be then welded together and this streamlined construction allowed the United
States create a staggering two thousand seven hundred and ten Liberty ships between 1941
and 1945 and that is far and away the most ships ever built on a single design and importantly
many of the ships were built by female workers in eighteen different shipyards in the United
States another exciting thing about the Liberty ships is that they were originally designed
for a short shelf life they had a five year design life they were just going to be used
to carry stuff across the ocean during the war but many of them successfully operated
even to the 1950s and some redesigned versions were still operating with the military even
into the 1970s in fact there are still three Liberty ships afloat today all of them floating
museums but two of them fully seaworthy but there is one more Liberty ship that you should
know about the SS Richard Montgomery which is submerged in the Thames river with enough
high explosives in her hull to create an explosion that would create a tidal wave that would
flood the city of London the SS Richard Montgomery was built by the st. Johns River shipbuilding
company the 7th Liberty Ship built by that company she was laid down in March of 1943
and launched June 15th of that year and she was named after an Irish American general
in the u.s.
Revolutionary War like other ships of her design she had a displacement of fourteen
thousand four hundred and seventy-four tons a length of four hundred and twenty-two feet
and a beam of fifty seven feet she had a crew of 45 in August of 1944 the Montgomery was
loaded with nearly 7,000 tons of high explosives mostly aerial bombs at Hogg's Island Philadelphia
she was eventually bound for the port of shurberg France now in allied hands at the Battle of
Normandy importantly Liberty ships usually had a draught of 28 feet but because of her
load she was trimmed for a draught of 31 feet those three feet would make a difference she
crossed the Atlantic Ocean without incident and arrived in Southend on the River Thames
an important hub for shipping in the Second World War on August 20th she was supposed
to wait there for a convoy to take her across the channel to share Berg the Harbormaster
on Southend pier in charge of all shipping on the Thames Estuary ordered her to berth
in an area designated as the great north Anchorage near the seaside port town of Sheerness there
was an argument between the harbor master and the assistant harbour master because the
depth at low tide on the sand banks in that Anchorage was less than 30 feet but the Montgomery
had a draught of 31 feet but the assistant harbour master was overruled she dropped anchor
and in the night she drifted over one of the sand banks and at low tide she grounded buckling
some four plates some of the ships in the area had seen her drifting towards the sand
banks and had blown their whistles in warning but the officer in charge had done nothing
to save the ship and didn't even wake up the captain who was asleep in his bunk she would
have to wait at least two weeks for a tide high enough to lift her off the sand bank
and even then that would only work if she were to have all of her cargo removed and
so on August 23rd they started removing the cargo using the ship's own equipment but as
she sat on the sand bank the stresses were too much for the hull and she cracked in half
and broke on the back and that caused holds 1 & 2 on the bow end of the ship to flood
well they were able to empty the other holds which were still above water but as the ship
broke apart they abandoned the salvage and left her where she was with some three and
a half thousand tons of high explosives still on board as the ship was obviously a total
loss and other ships demanded attention they decided to abandon the wreck and left the
wreck with three and a half thousand tons of explosives sitting in the London shipping
lanes apparently assuming that someone else would clean it up later but they didn't the
Montgomery wreck and her three and a half thousand tons some 9,000 different munitions
including at least a thousand huge thousand-pound bombs still sits in the River Thames today
so for starters what would happen if all of those munitions blew up in some catastrophic
explosion well simply put it would be the largest non-nuclear explosion in the history
of humanity New Scientist magazine did some calculations in 2004 and they determined that
if all the munitions were to explode they would throw debris nearly two miles in the
air and create a tidal wave 30 to 40 feet tall that would go all the way to central
London although some experts argue that a catastrophic explosion is unlikely rather
they surmise that only a few of the large bombs would likely explode and then all that
would happen is that they would throw nine thousand different pieces of decaying world
war two high explosives all over one of the world's busiest shipping lanes the official
view is that it would be more dangerous to try to remove the explosives than to just
let them be and there's some truth to that a similar attempt in 1967 to recover a much
smaller wreck of ammunition ship four miles offshore created an explosion that measured
4.5 on the Richter scale but there are significant concerns with leaving her where she is although
the heavy bombs don't have detonators on them the ship included hundreds of containers of
smaller cluster bombs and those did have their detonators and they could potentially still
be active so as the wreck decays there's a concern that the containers of cluster bombs
could collapse onto the heavy bombs and cause a catastrophic explosion there's a more obscure
risk - as there are still mines from World War 2 in the Thames Estuary and there's a
concern that if a mine were to loose from a frayed cable that could float into the Montgomery
and caused her to explode there's also simply the risk of a collision with another ship
she's got a wide exclusion zone and she's well marked but there had been several near
misses over the years especially in rough weather and the new concern is that the ship
and its wreck could be a target for terrorists and so the liberty ship that the people on
the nearby town of Sheerness affectionately call Monti sits there in the Thames today
daily testing the theory that inaction is better than action the only real solution
which would be a careful removal of the explosives would cost at least millions of pounds and
nobody wants to pay for it but the longer the ship sits the more it decays the more
serious the problem becomes and the more expensive the recovery would be and so perhaps the richard
montgomery is the world's greatest example of the adage never put off till tomorrow what
you should do today I'm the history guy I hope you enjoyed today's edition of my series
five minutes of history short snippets have forgotten history five to ten minutes long
if you did enjoy it then please click the like button that's there on your left if you
have any questions or comments then write them in the comment section and I will be
happy to respond and if you want five more minutes of history all you need to do is put
that subscribe button that's you're right