SS Richard Montgomery
The SS Richard Montgomery was an American Liberty ship built during World War II, one of the 2,710 used to carry cargo during the war. Montgomery was wrecked off the coast of Kent in 1944 with over 3,000 tons of explosives on board, which continue to be a hazard to the area.
The ship was built in 1943 by the St. Johns River Shipbuilding Company, (Est. 1942), and was the seventh of the 82 such ships built by this yard. The ship was completed July 1943, given the official ship number 243756, and named after Richard Montgomery, a celebrated Irish-American soldier of the American Revolutionary War.
In August 1944, on what was to be her final voyage, the ship left Hog Island, Philadelphia, where she had been loaded with 6,127 tons of explosives. She made her way from the Delaware river to the Thames estuary, then anchored while awaiting the formation of a convoy to travel to Cherbourg, France, which had already fallen to the Allies (on July 27, 1944) during the Battle of Normandy.
When she arrived off Southend she came under the authority of the Thames naval control at HMS Leigh, located at the end of the Southend pier. It was then the harbour master, responsible for all shipping movements in the estuary who ordered Montgomery to a berth off the north edge of Sheerness middle sands, where she ran aground in a depth of 24 ft. of water at low tide.
The general dry cargo liberty ship had an average draught of 28 ft (8.5 m), Montgomery was trimmed to a draught of 31 ft (9.4 m) however, and at low water, at the height of a spring tide with a northerly wind it was inevitable the ship would run aground at its shallow mooring.
On August 20, 1944, the ship ran aground on sand banks near the British Isle of Sheppey off the northern coast of Kent. Between then and September 25, about half of the explosives were successfully removed from the wreck, after which time the ship was abandoned.
A Rochester-based Stevedore Company was given the job of removing the cargo, which began August 23, 1944 using the ship's own cargo handling equipment. By the next day, the ship's hull had cracked, causing several cargo holds at the fore end to flood. The salvage operation continued until September 25, when the ship was finally abandoned.
During the enquiry that followed, it was revealed that several ships moored nearby had noticed Montgomery drifting toward the sandbank, that they had attempted to signal an alert by sounding their sirens without avail, that throughout this Captain Wilkie of the Montgomery was asleep, and that the chief officer was unable to explain why he had not alerted the captain.
However, the real reason for the disaster was ultimately down to the harbour master, who was confident that his choice of berth for the ship was safe, despite objections by the assistant harbour master who tried to have it relocated, but was countermanded by his superior. Foley, the assistant, insisted upon a written confirmation of these instructions, which was refused; with this Foley left the office.
After the disaster, Foley was posted to another department, which prevented his attendance at the enquiry, and so obscured the fact that the ship was incompetently parked by the harbour master, who then refused to consider otherwise.
Due to the presence of unexploded ordnance, the ship is still monitored by the Port of London Authority. 3,173 tons of various explosives remain on and around the wreck to this day.
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