The Richard Montgomery: The Time Bomb Sitting Off the Coast of England
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- Опубликовано: 7 апр 2024
- Don't miss out on the jaw-dropping story of The Richard Montgomery, a sunken World War II ship filled with tons of undetonated explosives near a major city! Watch now to uncover the shocking truth!
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What irks me most is, that quote "biggest non-nuclear explosion the world has ever seen" in regard to the 1.4 kt of TNT. Which is about half of what detonated at Halifax in 1917, the actual biggest non-nuclear *accidental artificial explosion.
Yeah this exactly thing brought me to the comment section as well
Never let the facts get in the way of a JAW-DROPPING, SENSATIONAL, SHOCKING RUclips video about a subject that was fully DOCUMENTED on the Internet YEARS AGO!! (Creator capitals🤣)
Ah, most people have never heard of the Port Chicago disaster. Nearly 5,000 tons of munitions went up in the San Francisco Bay Area. That's a bigger boom than either of the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan. July 17, 1944. There's even a juicy conspiracy theory that the US wanted to see what kind of damage a bomb of that size would do. Side note, Simon, there's a lot of good material there for a video.
That's precisely what came to mind when he mentioned the size of it, it also ignores the Beirut explosion which involved 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate
The difference between Halifax and Beirut, and this potential explosion is population density of the areas, but even so, it'd be dwarfed by at least 2 prior none nuclear explosions if it does go up
Simons channels seem to have massively dropped in accuracy, they've always contained factual errors, but it seems to have gotten even worse in recent months, or at least the errors have become even more glaringly obvious
That was a quote from the experts working on the ship. Not a made up fact by the writers or Simon. So I think y’all are upset with the wrong people
Lived on the isle of Sheppey my whole life and my Dad was a fisherman. When I was very young, he took me out to the wreck and basically described it to me like this: if a boat were to go beyond the buoys, the bombs could go off and cause a huge tidal wave. London will shut the thames gates and the tidal wave will absoutely come towards our home. The explosion would also be so loud that all our windows would shatter.
Man, i had nightmares for years 😂
My Dad worked in a massssssiiiiiivvvee chemical factory. He said that someone only had to smoke in the wrong place and the whole district where we lived would blow up. I once had a nightmare about the sirens sounding the 4 minute warning going off, woke up and found that it was actually the fire sirens of the factory that were sounding, so that wasn't much better, from a personal perspective.
Takes five hours to raise the Thames Barrier dont think they would have the time.
Maybe they could plan it so less disaster? @@ianhoare289
Not to worry, just going beyond the buoys isn't the problem, not every boat anyway. I know this because I pointed out to a shortsighted family member why TF we were on the wrong side of the buoys when we were travelling down the Thames 😂
@@ianhoare289 LOL no it doesn't. 90 minutes is the average time. It can go way quicker in an emergency
Oh, they could have done something when it was safer and cheaper, but balked at the expense, so now it's even higher. Gee, that sounds familiar...
Sounds like an average Brit to me.
@@goldenhate6649 Or American businessman...
"Government" in general.
there is no "safe" way to take explosives from a submerged ship
it's inherently dangerous
Boris Johnson both as London Mayor and Prime Minister assured everyone there was nothing to worry about and the Montgomery was safe and they should consider building an airport next to it.
If it does blow up, I think absolutely nobody can say, "We never saw that coming!"
They'll definitely try to though
We are talking about politicians and bureaucrats, they can say pretty much anything and at least a third of the people will believe it.
Paper Pushing Bureaucrats at their finest.....
Yeah, just like they did with Hurricane Katrina. I remember growing up in the early 90s and watching weather documentaries, one after another warning a strong category 4 or 5 hurricane hitting New Orleans would be the "Doomsday Scenario". Then it happened, and everyone in government was going on about how nobody could have planned for this....
But you are talking about England! And the English don't care what happens, probably they will loudly cheer and then complain. Basically what they did with Grenfell towers.
If something triggers the cargo of the Montgomery, it will hardly be the largest non nuclear explosion ever encountered. It won't even be the largest non nuclear explosion on UK soil. RAF Fauld holds the UK honour, and with between 3500-4000 tons of munitions exploding in a gypsum mine, its unlikely to ever be surpassed.
Yeah, that was 31 casualties. I'm an Aussie, so I'm not pretending to know UK geography, but the predictions listed seem like they'd have pretty severe consequences..
Fauld was underground though where this ship is in shallow water. Fauld often gets forgotten about though.
Absolutely agree. The London one might cause more damage but no way would it be bigger than Fauld which had massive stores of ammunition and even tall boy bombs. I knowcthey werexstored there as my dad used to see them and said he could just look over the top, they were so big.
@@rkirke1 Official death toll reached 83 at Fauld, according to the memorial
SS Mont-Blanc sends it's regards from Halifax.
Halifax and surrounding countryside.
There is an Ireland, some BFO hills and the curvature of the of the planet in the way between me and Halifax. If It went off You'd feel those buns pucker back where you are. Beirut had a similar size thing happen a couple of years ago.
If the tubes will let me have a linky.
ruclips.net/video/LNDhIGR-83w/видео.html
You are experiencing the London effect, this is when NOTHING is as big or important around the world, before or after, that has happened in london.
Also Texas in 1947 in Galveston bay when the SS Grandcamp exploded. 2300 tons of Ammonium Nitrate exploded killing 581 people.
@@jimmywranglesI had forgotten that one.
Shocking that this was allowed in England. A similar ignored hazard destroyed an entire port in Lebanon a few years back.
This. This is how so many Plainly Difficult videos start - authorities ignored a clear and present danger and then WOOPS there goes the neighbourhood
Was.... roflmao, still is, its April, we've had some really lovely storms so I assume the date for removal has been pushed back a bit.
One of the other comments said "what's a few kilotons?". Tell that to the citizens of Beruit. According to Wikipedia, there are roughly 1500 tons of explosives present. So we are talking about a potential explosion over half the size of Beruit.
Don't forget the Cyprus Navy base explosion in 2011. That situation was ignored up until it exploded as well.
There are no fuses present to be defused. TNT is extremely stable. Without a detonator to induce a shock at the appropriate speed it’s unlikely that the explosives will ever detonate. TNT is also a fertilizer and at that shallow a depth the casings will eventually corrode away and the explosive material will become fertilizer for algae, lichens and seaweed. In the water it is less dangerous than ashore. The easiest solution is to remove each bomb individually, cut them open with abrasives and then distribute the explosive material as small particles in open water. This was the way authorities did it in Florida a few years ago and it worked out very well. No explosions and minimal damage to the environment. They left the ship as an artificial reef, determining that once the explosives were gone there was no need to salvage the ship.
Fun fact: Laos is the most bombed country on earth. With 260 million bombs dropped on the country between 1964 - 1973.
This all happened on a country that was neutral during the Vietnam war.
Also during the war American pilots used Laos as a dumping ground for their bombs when they couldn't find their targets in Vietnam.
thats not very fun
Laos was neutral, but apparently nobody told North Vietnam that. Same for Cambodia.
Win some, Laos some 🤷🏼♂️
They didn't drop the bombs on anything that would be damaged.
@@tedmoss The issue here is when the bombs fail to explode. They can get struck by a plow years later. Even now during construction it isn't unusual to find WW2 bombs in German cities. Kind of a pucker moment for the construction crews.
Before I retired, I worked with a Navy Clearance Diver who had visited the wreck (I'd guess his dive there was about 20 years ago).
He told me that the wooden packing crates had completely rotted away, leaving the weapons fallen down and jumbled together. Good news - the belts of machine gun ammunition (factory wrapped in greased paper) almost looked like new. Bad news - the safety arming wires in things like mortar shells had completely corroded away. Add to that 80 years of submersion in sea water degrading the explosive stabilisers and its looking very risky.
Those bombs are national landmarks you can't remove them
NIMBYs have evolves to new levels
At yet, it doesn't even crack the top 5 reasons not to live in Sheerness!! 😂
Three words: Halifax, Beirut, Tianjin.
Edit: on request: Evangelos Florakis Naval Base, Cyprus.
Add Envangelis Florals Navel Base ,Zygi, Cyprus to that list.
@@DrunkguyFawkes4 Evangelos Florakis Naval Base.
Texas in 1947 in Galveston bay. The SS Grandcamp exploded. 2300 tons of Ammonium Nitrate detonated killing 581 people.
Apparently it was a big deal.
I mean there are bigger ones on UK soil, RAF Faulds was an explosion of 3500-4000 tons of munitions.
@@azzifyy5988 2 kilotons. Wow! Halifax was the biggest, but that came in a close second.
Dear Simon,
Could you please tell your sound editors to turn down the background music. As a person of screwed up hearing, I find the music in most productions to be very distracting...Thank You. PS...keep up with your good work.
My hearing must be worse than yours I couldn't hear the music until I turned up the volume even more. Perhaps they have since reduced it from the original. 😂 (not wearing the hearing aids they are a pain)
For me the b/g music is the same volume of Simon's voice. I struggle to differentiate the two of them, so its annoying.
I second that. It is really hard to hear him, over the music.
No music, please. It's just an unneccesary irritant.
It's unnecessary unless in a documentary slide change for emotional draw.
Despite their flaws in construction the Liberty Ships were very successful for their intended purpose of getting freight across the Atlantic during the war, and many remained in service for a great deal longer than their intended lifespan.
My father worked on the issue of brittle fracture in the liberty ships post war and emigrated briefly with my mother to the USA. They returned later and he continued his work in this country.
Greek shipping tycoon, Aristotle Onassis, first made his fortune buying war surplussed Liberty ships for pennies on the dollar & assembled a large fleet of them.
Hearing Simon mention Southend had me looking up at my screen so quickly I almost got whiplash 😂
Same. 😂
My husband was born and raised in Southend
Same
My grandfather was a naval armed guard during WW2. His job was to escort liberty ships on thier way to support all allies. According to his DD214 he was awarded a campaign medal from all major theaters. North Atlantic, Mediterranean and Pacific.
Downsides of explosion: Sheerness covered in mud.
Upsides of explosion: See downsides.
Now being serious this has long been known about and Sheerness and the surrounding area have extremely low house prices for that reason. I had some relatives live on Sheppey; when they managed to scrape up some money they moved away. To Pembrokeshire. Which promptly developed a major unemployment problem. Frying pan, fire. As you go up the hill on Sheppey house prices increase as you get beyond the likely covered in mud area.
The truth is, as the then MP for Dover once told me, that governments think that all of Kent is in the rich southeast and doesn't need to be worried about. But Sheppey, Chatham and Dover are actually pretty run down. And yet they vote Conservative, ensuring nothing will be done.
yea chatham and gillingham are pretty grotty, even tho they have important history in them. speaking from someone who lived there most of their life. and being right next to the river, that opens out right next to sheerness, they are also gonna get flooded, along with Rochester with its Norman Keep.
Sounds like the American south. Stupid flag waving red necks voting against their own interests.
As someone who was almost born on Sheppey, was born in Chatham and grew up on the other side of the Thames - I concur fully with your statement!
Just like in all the places that insist on voting Liebour in.
I visited Dover at the end of the 90s and it was very run-down then. Labour didn’t fix it during their thirteen years in power. So we shouldn’t expect them to be any more effective.
"The likes of which has never been experienced anywhere in the world." Ok, it's not an exact comparison due to the water, but 3500-4000 tonnes went up at RAF Fauld, more than double the 1500 tonnes on this shipwreck. As it happens, RAF Fauld is similarly off limits due to a significant amount of unexploded munitions buried deep within the site, which the government considers too expensive to remove.
The area of the munitions camp a little north of Basingstoke is a dumpling ground used in both world wars. No maps (pleading war time pressures) so no-one knows just what is buried there. Off limits to military personnel.
It wasn't a single explosion, there were multiple explosions and from what I have read it all didn't ignite in the explosion. It had a damage and debris radius of 1.3km. In the Halifax explosion the ships forward 90mm gun was found 5.6km away. I have always heard the halifax explosion was the biggest non-nuclear explosion.
Fauld has a footpath that runs inside the crater. Unsure why you would think it’s off limits. The part of the tunnel that is exposed (with the ventilation fans) is fenced off but there is nothing around, it’s in the middle of a field.
My favorite thing about this story is that there are a ton of sites like this one all over the world from world war 2 and other wars.
Where?
@@tedmoss anywhere there was battle. There are still plenty of unexploded ordinance just sitting under city blocks.
Just an editing note.. musics usually too loud.
I think if it went off it would be akin to the 1917 Halifax explosion where the ship's anchor was found several miles from the explosion.
She was queuing up with over ships to get to the London docks. The river pilot told the captain to drop anchor in that position, the captain complained that this part of the channel had a large amount sand beds and she was low in the water. The river pilot told the ship to do what it was told to do, the tide dropped and the stern was afloat but the bow was not. The ship broke it`s back and sunk. The criminal here, was the river pilot.
The HX prefix means the convoy started in Halifax. Greetings from Canada
I heard about this during the construction of the Thames tidal barrier. As a Londoner it became something one got used to and never thought about. What could you do, being too poor to move away? I just got on with my life adding it to the possibility of WW3, aeroplanes flying over and crashing, IRA terrorist attacks, UXB's etc.
Taking 80 years to do anything about a serious issue? that's your local counsel for you.
British Government I think you’ll find.
Nothing to do with councils it UK government and Port of London Authority
And after 80y, all they're doing is talking about it...
@@sapiotone Very true but surely local councillors and MPs should have been pushing for something to be done many years ago their suppose to represent the well being of there constituents.
Anywhere? Halifax Canada would like to have a word with you.
Absolutely
This would be worse the explosives are of much higher energy density near the mouth of the Thames leading into a population centre of over 18 million people. it would be bigger than 2.5x the Beirut explosion that flattened 1/4 of the city
@@SirZanZa still the same kind of disaster. Just with explosives that have been waterlogged for three quarters of a century.
Giving me strong Halifax Explosion vibes
Every day Sittingbourne isn’t wiped of the map is a bad one
Hey Simon. I think the music was a bit loud. Hard at times to hear what you were saying. Apart from that , an excellent video as usual.
I agree Simon please ask sound artist to turn it down when you are talking
I live near and work in sheerness. Somewhat mentally, we’re all rather proud of it 😂
Til now, the only thing I knew about sheerness was the scorpion colony
@@Observer675we're also incredibly proud of that 😂
@@Ellie-rx3jt Goodo. I was convinced everyone was going to judge the fact I was wandering around at night with a uv torch
OH GOOD LORD I LIVE 20 MINS AWAY FROM THAT BOAT
My you can swim very fast! Or is it that you can just walk, or run, on water?
Better get a safety tie 👍
@@scott.russell I got the reference :)
well, if it goes up, you'll end up over an hour away.
@@mrbluesky2050 Learn to surf?
I kayaked past it back in 2016 when a couple of friends and I were doing a charity paddle from London to Devon. The exclusion zone is marked by a handful of yellow marker buoys. Wreck fishing is, of course, banned. I have to say, I couldn't help but feel a little anxious as we paddled past, although we did stop for a few photos near the marker buoys. There is definitely something very ominous about it!
well....that's ok then! I thought there was nothing stopping eg a terrorist state doing something nefarious. Lucky those marker buoys are there or we'd be in real trouble!
Isn’t the estuary only like 15-20ft deep? No submarine could get close without surfacing. That aside, I know full well that British waters are monitored by the military. They have to be because enemy countries such as Russia routinely try to breach our defences, especially around Faslane. And this stuff seems routine like it’s not even reported.
Since the wreck almost certainly represents a threat to national security for the very reason bad guys might want to use it as a weapon, I have no doubt it’s being closely monitored. Especially given how much more advanced surveillance technology has become since the seventies.
I bet the OP was being watched as he went past those buoys. But if you’re so sure that it’s left unguarded then why don’t you buy or hire a canoe or something and try to paddle past the buoys and grab the masts? But don’t blame me for the consequences.
@@mikoto7693 I believe the local port (Medway) monitors the wreck with 24 hour CCTV and RADAR. 🙏🏻
@@roysoutdoorlife Thank you for the information. I’d only just learned about the wreck from watching the video so I was going off my gut feeling and what I’d learned about how Faslane is guarded.
It also seemed pretty obvious really. We’re living in a post 9/11 world where the entire western civilisation was rocked to the core by how terrorists exploited our humanity and massacred thousands. If we random Joe/Jane Averages can think “hang on this might be a threat to national security” then it’s a guarantee that someone in authority has reached the same conclusion and steps have been taken to protect the wreck from bad actors.
It seemed logical to conclude that the wreck is being watched, even if it’s not announced to Joe Public and people like you, who were clearly not a threat and stayed outside the buoy marked exclusion zone were left alone. As I said, I was pretty sure that anyone who did pass the buoys might not like the consequences from the authorities.
But thanks again for confirming it.
@@mikoto7693 exactly. With the modern day threat risks that exist, plus all the shipping in that area, I would imagine they would have many processes in place for all emergencies. 🙏🏻
Reminds me of that mine Nick Frost and Simon Pegg were informed about in Hot Fuzz.
Hahaha it didn’t remind me of it, but your comment made me chuckle.
Don't worry, the local council have a licence for it. Just not for all the other bits of it.
So...like...a terrorist could just take a run at it with a small boat full of explosives in hopes of setting off an even bigger boom?
The site is extremely closely monitored 24/7.
@@markmaher4548 So was the WTC, Pentagon, and many other places that went horribly wrong...
@@markmaher4548 Sure, sure. Just like pearl harbor was? Or commercial aircraft in 2001?
Now its hard to make TNT explode, blocks.5 kg of TNT in a line will not propagate if its an 2 cm gap learned this as an engineer in the army.
Yet if you make an large depth charge and dropped it on top it might work, or not depending on distance from top of hull to the bombs.
To be sure you have to get inside the hull and put charges on the bombs who require more skill.
@@magnemoe1 How about a torpedo from an enemy sub? Like Shkval VA-111? 210kg of conventional explosives in a 2700kg torpedo travelling at 100-150 knots?
The hubris of people's superiors thinking they know more than the people under them which isn't always the case
Never heard of this. Fascinating stuff Fact Boi
Tom Scott also has a good video about this.
It'll be in a safe condition according to the government until the very second it explodes!!!!😂
Im very familiar with this ship wreck, as i could see from my bedroom window. Plus my dad was in the coastguard, and spent many a time checking on it, and making sure no one went near. Its very easy seen at low tide and you can still see it sitting there.
We grow up with the fact if this thing went off it would be one of the biggest none nuclear explosions in the world.
Sit on the Minster/Sheerness beach and there it is.
That pretty much confirms my theory that it’s being closely monitored in case the stupid or nefarious try to mess with it.
Ordnance being transported aren’t “fused”; the danger is from sympathetic explosions of all the remaining ordnance. It the ordnance is filled with Comp B, which was the norm during WW2 it has become unstable. Unstable Comp B explodes with a force far greater than the original yield.
"Rather than be pleased that some action would be taken. She goes onto complain that the masts are a local landmark and it'll be a shame not to see them."
How stupid does one have to be to value the man made scenery above saving lives from a FUCKING EXPLOSION?
Ah I presume you’re not from the UK?
As a Brit myself, when I heard that I just thought “yup, checks out” 🙄😂😂
Honestly? There are people like that here in the States too.
Welcome to the UK
It's OK, the Medway towns are a shit hole, no one will miss them
@@Turnipstalk I don't know. London seems to be having a bit of a problem with people using kitchen knives as weapons. At a record breaking pace, I might add. I'd dare say it's a people problem, not a gun problem, kid. I'm a combat veteran, and a civilian firearms collector. Of every firearm I've ever handled, the only ones that ever ended a life were those issued by the Department of Defense. My civilian owned firearms tend to just sit there, in their glass faced cabinet, looking pretty. I keep a good eye on them, and even have cameras in my home. I've never so much as seen one of them move under their own volition.
The chance of the Monty going up was one of the main reasons behind the Thames Barrier being built but that part is never talked about
As I have understood it if the vessel exploded without notice the barriers would not erect in time!
The defining trait of humanity is incompetence. I think Simon would enjoy the writing of James Fell, the Sweary Historian.
If that were true, everyone would be living naked in the dirt trying to find cockroaches to eat. We have competence to a slightly higher degree than incompetence. Our biggest issue is not looking and planning far enough ahead. Just keeping the plumbing working in our cities is miraculous, in my opinion.
@@AliceBowie You can be incompetent but still live in a nice place and eat some McDonalds.
Lived and worked in Southend from 1955 to 2010. Worked in a building that had a wonderful view of the Thames Estuary, knowing that we were in dead trouble if the Montgomery ever exploded. Glad I now live in Minnesota.
Related to procurement, I spoke to a retired military officer who was involved in the 2nd Gulf War. You may recall soldiers didn't have appropriate desert boots. He explained that politicians insisted on "Just In Time" buying rather than having stocks in warehouses. But they couldn't suddenly purchase large quantities of needed footwear without making it evident to the world what they intended to do.
Politicians kill, again.
Hmm the too loud background sound comes to this channel too, and I'm not going to start watching with worse audio systems... darn, losing more Simon's channels.
If the background music is too loud then you have hearing issues
The music in the beginning is a little too much and too loud .
Have been to Sheerness many times, looked at this wreck from the sea wall. Ships steam past every hour or so delivering large numbers of cars to the port at Sheerness for delivery on by road and train, a local amusement centre has a large mural of a mermaid about to press down the plunger on a detonator on it's wall.
Visible in the distance are two sea-forts, which look a lot like the one in a recent movie about the last people alive in a devastated world, who live on a sea-fort.
There are also three large windfarms visible in the same area. No collisions or explosions yet.
The explosives in those bombs rolling around on the bottom of the river are unlikely to explode; they lack detonators, and the cheap mass-produced explosives in the latter part of WWII is almost certainly decayed by now.
The bombs are also so spread around by tidal scour and the ship breaking up, that there is unlikely to be a sympathetic detonation of all of them.
The smaller bombs and incendiaries have all disintegrated by now, as well; magnesium and seawater do not mix well.
If that ship were lying on the bottom in once piece, unnaffected by time, corrosion and the actions of the tides, then... maybe... an explosion could have happened.
As an Ex-resident of Canvey Island, this was a bit of a concern at times, of course then there was the possibility of flooding again or terrorist attacks on the refinery storage and last but not least death by boredom. I did once have the idea of writing a story about a royal visit to Southend-on-sea which was to be threatened by a terrorist plot to blow up the ship if it's demands were not met! As at the time I was living on Canvey .. I did not want to give anyone ideas!! ...... but now I don't live there!!!!!! ..... 🤔😏😉
I live on the Crouch and I can Count on one hand how many times I’ve been to the canvey once or twice to the goldmine when I was younger and another was a fishing boat I was on broke down and the skipper rode the boat to the sea wall. I walked all the way round to Leigh 😂
70 years ago I attended a primary school in Sheerness, where the classrooms faced at the wreck some 1½ miles out to sea and ,whilst we were aware of the danger, we were not cowed by the threat and neither was the populace of Sheerness. Life went on as normal, as it has done for the last 80 years! A UK Government report published in 2000, following a 1999 survey, some 55 years after the vessel grounded, said the following "...It is believed that, left to itself, the wreck will break up gradually. There is a good prospect that all the ordnance will get wet in this process and will become neutralised..." It also said "...The risk of a major explosion is believed to be remote and is probably becoming even less likely with the passage of time. It may eventually pass altogether, but this is not likely to be for some considerable time..." So 24 years have passed since the publication of the report and the "...considerable time..." referred to has been reduced by a large degree. The report also noted the following "...Whilst the risk of a major explosion is remote, it is considered prudent to monitor regularly the condition of the wreck. Therefore routine surveys have been undertaken to assess the condition of the wreck and to check for any new signs of possible danger..." The UK Government has not raised the danger level nor suggested the situation with the wreck has become any worse! So is this vlog not yet another rabble-rousing, rumour-mongering attempt at raising mass hysteria?
I've fished right next to that thing. Probably fine!
My dad built Liberty ships on the west coast in 43-44, He told me that a lot of times after the root pass they would pack it with wielding rods with the flux knocked off and then do a cover pass. In late 44 he joined the Navy at 15 and served on liberty ships as an armed guard.
Hello Simon, off the top of your or your researcher's heads. How would the explosion compare to the 2020 Beirut explosion? If I recall, that was a pretty gnarly explosion as well.
Hey Simon!
It would be awesome if you could tune down your background music you put in videos by a smidge so that we can hear you a bit better, especially when you talk fast?
Other than that, love the content ❤
This makes me glad the US mainland hasn't been the location of a major conflict since our civil war.
the US east coast is the location of a lost 4 megaton thermonuclear bomb, there is a lost 4 megaton nuclear bomb in a riverbed in Savannah Georgia, there is a Uranium core atomic bomb lost in a field in North Carolina thought to be over 100 feet deep in the earth. there is also a 30kt atom bomb off the US pacific coast 16000ft deep ... i think you have a potentially much worse problem.
@@SirZanZa You are incorrect about that. Some of that was rumor only and those that were not have been secured. I know this, friend because I was in a position to know. Nice try though.
@@user-lb4yp4sl4y its declassified US government documents dude. a simple online search my guy. there are entire documentaries on it LMFAO. the US has 6 broken arrow events (loss of nuclear weapons ) on US or near US soil. i am NOT mistaken ... these aren't the only ones either. just ones on or near US soil. please do your research
Interesting video Simon. Should look into Beaufort's Dyke that is an ammunition dumping ground in between Scotland and Ireland.
When I was in the Merchant Navy back in the 80s , we used to anchor in the Thames just off the Montgomery. Apparently if it had blown up Southend would have been flattened.
What's the downside?
Even a fully grown nuclear bomb wouldn't do that damage if it went boom in the same location as the ship, water absorbs a hell of a lot more energy than air.
@@DC-uf6ve Well, We couldn't get ashore.
@@richardjones2811 Wouldn't really want to be around to find out. Sheerness was pretty awful
Oh no, never mind.
I live in Southend-on-sea and we just take The Montgomery as a landmark.
Similar to this was the massive man made Mines that were placed under the German trenches in WW1. There were almost twenty of those mines placed but three or four of them did not Detonate when they were supposed to. The shafts collapsed leading to the charges and they were deemed to dangerous to dig out to see what had gone wrong. In the 1970's one of these abandoned mines exploded causing a number of houses in a French village to be destroyed. The documentary on this said they suspected there were three more unexploded mines in the area but the records were not clear.
Mans inhumanity to man will always come back to haunt us and not from a Religous perspective.
yeah when you look at the size of the hole that got blown the last time one went off (an entire hill was turned into a crater) the prospect of 3 more of those sitting around somewhere is distinctly horrifying
There is a lost nuke somewhere around the coast of the Carolinas from back in the 50 s , to this day they can not find it
the good news is the mechanisms that set off nuclear bombs are very fragile and require annual replacement of components every 10 years.
while its scary a radiation source is orphaned out there somewhere theres no way the mechanism to cause a bomb to go off is still intact
You are thinking of the Tybee Island, Georgia, H-bomb. Lost nearby in the Atlantic, 5 February 1958, after a B-47 bomber accident forced a jettison of this atomic beast. Just type "Tybee Island bomb" in YT's search feature and you'll find a number of videos on this uncomfortable story.
Beirut - "hold my beer"
San Francisco has a bunch of 500lb bombs no one will touch because of liability concerns.
❤ Dave is great . ❤
Nice job reading as always Simon.
Between France/Belgium there are much more dangerous places. Huge stockpiles of WW1 shells with chemical agents were dumped in the nordsee. Plus in WW2 planes that had to lose weight or had unused bombs left, Threw at almost the same places.
Sometimes pieces of mustertgas jelly pair on beaches. So the ammo is now highly corroded and unstable.
Oh yeah, there is enough old chemical munitions that were dumped into the Baltic sea that when all of it finally rusts away the whole of the Baltic sea could be sterilized of all sea life, and would make the coast unlivable to say the least!
Lose the background music si, dreadfully distacting
Seems to be the “in” thing, unfortunately. I find it extremely irritating and distracting.
I’d be fine with turning it way down
Even worse for someone with a hearing problem who could not hear voice if turned it down! Not needed on a documentary as not a pop video with the sort of people watching that cannot do without it, to keep their attention!.
Totally agree
Im going to mention Fauld arms dump here ( in the Midlands) as it contained far more explosive than the ship mentioned and left a massive crater where a hill once stood, vapourizing it and a far on top.
On 27 November 1944, the RAF Ammunition Depot at Fauld, Staffordshire, became the site of the largest explosion in the UK, when 3,700 tonnes of bombs stored in underground bunkers covering 17,000 m2 (180,000 sq ft) exploded en masse. The explosion was caused by bombs being taken out of store, primed for use, and replaced with the detonators still installed when unused. The crater was 40[46] metres (130 ft) deep and covered 5 hectares. The death toll was approximately 78, including RAF personnel, six Italian prisoners of war, civilian employees, and local people. In the similar Port Chicago disaster (above), about half the weight of bombs was high explosive. If the same is true of the Fauld Explosion, it would have been equivalent to about 2 kilotons of tnt.
The ship might cause more local damage to houses but wouldn't be as big.
That whole area is littered with explosives.
Fishermen pulling up mines or torpedoes in their nets is not unknown (and the explosions when the navy blows them up are quite spectacular), and bombs and other stuff turn up.
A few years back, the bridge over the river wansum at sarre was being given some regular maintainence and was found to be packed full of explosives in preparation of a German invasion, and someone had forgotten all about it. That was a bridge that probably had 10,000 cars and trucks crossing it daily on the nearly 50 years until it was discovered!
Merica yeah! (Points at last name LOL) I hope no one parks a shipload of tea next to it.
Successive UK governments kicking the can down the road on an essential industrial project/operation? I’m shocked, shocked I tell you!
We have excellent professionals and expertise and will probably do the job quite well when we finally get around to it. The Exchequer doesn’t like long-term planning and foresight though.
They love to waste money, especially when it makes their mates richer.
It seems to me the simplest and safest way to deal with this would be to entomb it in place, in effect building an island.
Start by building a steel coffer dam, maybe 200 feet out surrounding the boat, from seabed to surface. Then fill it it to the brim with hydraulic concrete, allowing the concrete to displace the seawater within the coffer dam, and stick a lighthouse on top. Once cured (about 30 days), the concrete island would keep any blast wave directed down into the seabed which should mitigate the tsunami hazard, as well as protecting the boat from any surface vessels or sub-surface hazards (anchors or fishing gear) from striking the boat causing accidental detonation. Yes, it could cost 300-400 million dollars to complete, but still considerably less than the cost of the theoretical damage it could cause if left as is.
We were sailing past the Montgomery, one fine Saturday, some years ago. A couple of lads in a speedboat hailed us and asked where Southend was. We pointed out the end of the pier, quite visible from where we were, straight over the Montgomery. The lads said "thanks" and, I shit you not, blasted straight across the exclusion zone only just missing the masts.
Volume is too low again. Adds are a pain when they explode in my ear
Ad block
I would love to hear you cover the horrors of the Indian Residential School System in Canada
He doesn't cover topics that were greatly exaggerated to demand reparations
I've gone to the Isle of Sheppey with my family before, did some camping and some fishing and I've gone past the wreck dozens of times on the train. My dad loves to point it out to my siblings every time we're approaching it on the train. He always told me it was an munitions ship, never knew it was THAT bad though.
Nice job, Dave.
You should start fact checking your sources or hire someone who will. If we wanted to watch people lie about how big a problem is just for views we would go watch the news
please stop with the use of AI
Why
Why? Stop using a shower? Or stop watching digital media? Computers? Music? Replications? Food recipes? There is nothing that hasn't been done and stolen. There are even sayings.
"Standing on the shoulders of giants"
Hear me out .. **GET WITH THE TIMES** if you're not using AI you're handicapping yourself.
I run a blue collar business & even I've found ways to use AI to streamline my business. To make my employees lives easier.
You're just afraid of the future.
Whatchu mean?
@@yolobathsalts You mean you found a way to make more money without paying someone to do it.
Back in the 1980's, BBC Essex covered this. Dave Monk interviewed the author of a book on the Richard Montgomery which included interviews with members of the salvage crew.
One of the salvage team recalled that, during the removal proccess, they moved into one part of the hold to begin unloading.
As they entered the hold, they noticed a large temperature drop. There were also crates strapped down separately to the rest of the cargo. Shortly after entering the hold, a military chap ordered them to cease salvaging the munitions and leave the ship.
it's not only small boats that go out to the wreck; I've been round it on the paddle steamer 'Waverley'. If Waverley was to cause it to explode then the sight of a paddle steamer flying through the air would be quite something....
Sadly the Waverley went back down to its home in the west (somewhere around Devon iirc) sometime around covid, so no more paddling around the Montgomery 😢
29 seconds, 0 views. Simon fell off
completely
This comment is quickly becoming the new "first!".
Real
Same was said about your mom also.
Just say u like men next time lot easier than hiding it
Have sailed around that ship many times.. nothing like a Frisian of excitement during a days sail lol..
that would make buncefield explosion seem like a banger going off
You might want to take a similar look at the places in the English channel where bombers returning without reaching their targets dropped their bombs.
Drach just talked about it in the last Drydock....
Thats so wierd
Came here to mention that
It’s blown out of proportion for sure, live on Sheppey. Yeah would cause flooding on Sheppey, Southend and the Medway. But London? Na overboard.
It’s always been blown out of proportion. It wouldn’t be great but, it wouldn’t wipe out the Isle of Sheppey like some people like to believe.
Not only is this a nothing burger, but you forgot the Halifax explosion happened
It certainly feels like there should be an exclusion zone around it where trespassing there could get you arrested or something. Its crazy to think some folks just climbed on the masts or circle around the boat for selfies...
There *is* an exclusion zone. People just keep sailing through it by accident. It's fine 🤷🏻♀️
It was educated about metallurgy, the liberty ships were used as an example, more were lost due to cold temperature affect on the steel than were sunk by u-boats. however the main problem I seem to remember was that the bulkhead openings had square corners, (cheap easy fast contruction) causing stress concentration fractures, much like the de Haviland comet years later. but I could be wrong. It was certainly a combination of factors. All bulkhead or panel openings must now be rounded, aircraft included.
So what you are telling me is that we have a ready made cataclysm just waiting for an enterprising terrorist in a diving suit to exploit. Well that's a new fear unlocked.
Nah, our government might be incompetent but our military is not. If that wreck is a threat to national security then I guarantee it or access to it is being monitored. Think about it . If several of us Joe/Jane Average civilians have thought of this, then the Royal Navy definitely has.
They might not react if some random idiot went and perched on the masts, but a legit threat would be. Besides isn’t the estuary only like 15-20 ft deep? Not like a submarine could ever sneak up the Thames.
ב''ה, it's okay, UK is pouring plenty of money into female circumcision
Our very own Beirut. Wheee !!! 😂
Suicide swimmers anyone? Am sure suprised that our chums of that *boom boom* persuasion havent tried anything with it, especially given the supposed damage it could inflict.
Shame you didn't mention as it was announced around the time of the video posting that the plan to move the masts has been put on hold, because of items recently found on the sea bed.
Look into the "Paardenmarkt" sandbank, just off the coast of Knokke, Belgium.. a toxic munitions dump from WW 1 just outside Zeebruges port and gas terminal....
The Montgomery is only about ten miles from the site of the 1916 explosion at Faversham gun powder mill, one of the largest detonations of World War One.
Until a few years ago (I forget exactly) Navy divers used to check on it, but now its deemed too dangerous
When I was a kid in the early 60s we were holidaying nearby and I went on a boat trip out to the wreck. The boat circled around the masts a few times and then came back. I remember the man running the trip telling us that it would take the nearby town with it if it blew up.
We look forward to every summer holiday can you quess where we go and what's the main attraction 😂😂love it in on the island 👍🏻
Using AI to edit sound is the worst idea ever, there’s spell check but there’s no sound check😂
I just thought of something. The D-Day landings went as well as they did. Due to an extreme low tide. So figure out when the next extremely low tide will be. Tell the people in the nearby towns to tape and board up their windows. Then when the tide is at its lowest. Blow the wreck. There wont be much of a wave, if the tide is Low. I wonder why no one has figured that out. Seems like a no brainer to me.
Beirut's harbor was obliterated by 2 kilotons equivalent of ANFO (several tons as it is known to be ANFO, less powerful than TNT) in the 90's, and Halifax harbor disappeared with 7000 tons of some other explosive in a cargo hold.
1.5 kilotons of TNT would be maybe the 3rd on the list.
An explosion the likes of which has never been experienced. That is if you're not couting the RAF Fould disaster which they also didn't bother to clean up. Where once was a hill with a farm house on top with a gypsum mine below ground which was used as a munitions depot is now a fenced off crater