Exclusion zone expanded around wreckage that could spark Thames tsunami

The exclusion zone around a World War Two ship packed with explosives dubbed the ‘doomsday wreck’ has been expanded.

The SS Richard Montgomery went down in the Thames Estuary with thousands of tonnes of ammunition in August 1944 and has been sitting on the seabed ever since.

Experts fear that an explosion could trigger a tsunami with waves up to 16ft high hitting the coastline, engulfing the Isle of Sheppey and flooding London.

From March 23 to April 5, shipping traffic will have to give the American munitions ship a wider berth while investigators survey the wreck and the area around it. Buoys to mark the new exclusion zone are in place from March 16.

It comes after a no-fly-zone was placed around The Montgomery last summer following advice that it was becoming more unstable.

There are also fears that cargo ships are sailing too close after photos emerged last summer showing how close tankers are allowed to get.

The Monty sits between Sheerness in Kent and Southend-on-on-Sea in Essex and broke in half when it sank to the bottom of the sea, taking 7,000 tonnes of ammunition with it.

Roughly half were salvaged, but around 14,571 bombs remain onboard.
Its three masts, which protrude from the water, are set to be cut down to reduce strain on the ship’s deteriorating hull.

However, that project, first announced six years ago, has been bogged down in delays.

The SS Richard Montgomery, named after an American hero of the War of Independence, had been set to join a convoy heading to Cherbourg in France after docking at Sheerness. Instead it ran aground and broke in half.

According to the report, such a detonation would cause a 3,000 metre high column of water and debris and a five-metre tsunami while both the town and port of Sheerness would be overwhelmed.

A government test was conducted in 1970, which detailed the worst-case scenario or ‘top event’ if the entire cargo of bombs exploded.

The water wave would also reach the Isle of Grain and its liquid gas installations with potentially catastrophic consequences.

Meanwhile, London would also be flooded thanks to the “Thames tsunami”. There are also lesser explosion scenarios.

The Department for Transport has been contacted for further information.

In June, a report suggested the shipwreck was coming closer to collapsing.

The report claimed the front part of the wreck is ‘splitting in two’, with the back section also in trouble.

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