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The UK Government confirmed that the project to remove the masts from a famous World War II shipwreck in the Thames Estuary has been commissioned at a cost of £9.5 million ($12.7 million). The project, which will start in July and proceed in September, seeks to remove three masts from a World War II American liberty ship that is still loaded with explosives and stabilize the wreck.
The SS Richard Montgomery has become a famous local tourist attraction, lying 1.5 miles off Sheerness in the Thames Estuary. Only the masts of the vessel remain above the surface, while the hull of the 440-foot (135-meter) vessel has broken in two and lies on the seafloor.
One of more than 2,700 WWII-built Liberty ships, a standardized design that the U.S. mass-produced to meet the needs for cargo and troops in World War II, the Richard Montgomery was commissioned in 1943 as a 10,000 dwt vessel used for cargo. Her fateful voyage began in August 1944 when she was loaded with nearly 7,000 tons of munitions. Upon her arrival in the UK, she was assigned an anchorage in the shallow Thames Estuary near the Sheerness Middle Sands. She was waiting for a convoy to proceed to Cherbourg, but on August 20, 1944, during a storm, she dragged anchor and grounded.
FULL ARTICLE AVAILABLE HERE: maritime-executive.com
