For anyone interested in the removal of the masts from the SS Richard Montgomery in the Thames, it’s happening now!

[columnatedruinsdomino]

Live feed

https://www.iossc.org.uk/weather/?sn=cam1-rt

The first mast was removed yesterday. There is a time-lapse video on Facebook under James Bell Photography that shows the mast being lifted out of the water. I can’t seem to share it.

One down, two to go!

Here are the masts back in June (while returning from trip to see Red Sands Fort). Also got to travel on the Waverley from Southend to London at the weekend (you can go in the engine room)

I’ve copied this fb link of footage of the last mast being removed for those of us who missed it. If the link doesn’t work the footage can be found on James Bell Photography fb page along with all his stills and video of the whole operation.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1408319334795923?fs=e&s=TIeQ9V

There is a bit still left . Got a seagull perched on it currently. They seem to be doing something with something on a long yellow cable.

Apparently the bit that’s left is part of the port-hand life-raft frame that can be seen at low tide. The starboard-hand one can also be seen occasionally.

Seems like the crane has hooked something and there are lots of orange people at the front of the barge having a look.

I think they're getting ready to move the barge.

And she's gone, out of camera view.

Thanks to Robin Nixon of Minster for providing the live feed. Feel sad it’s all over but looking forward to seeing the masts on display somewhere, hopefully Sheerness.

Thank you for starting the thread, columnatedruinsdomino. It's been very interesting. Have wasted a lot of time watching the passing shipping.

Tracking on Marine Traffic now to see where the barge and its attendant tugs go.

I am struggling with why this wreck is still there, could and still can have its load salvaged. Bombs are not fuzed. I and many others have dived through the wreck of the Umbria in Sudan, 1000's of bombs with approx 6000 tonnes of explosive in situ plus other assorted munitions.

I’m sure they wouldn’t have spent millions over the years monitoring the wreck if it was a simple case of just salvaging the load! 🤣
The ship broke in two in the early days when salvaging was still taking place and so it was deemed too unstable to carry on.
If the explosives were not fused there would be no problem but there are hundreds of fused bombs and self-detonating devices iirc.

I'm not sure why you'd assume there are no fuzes down there.

Wikipedia has a good article on it, including the fuzes and the fact that another similar wreck, the Kielce, exploded during salvage in 1967.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Richard_Montgomery

Then of course there's the fact that the wreck site has been used an informal munitions dump by local fishermen for decades.

If they found something untoward in the water, they'd just drop it in the Richard Montgomery exclusion zone with all the rest.

So now nobody knows what's down there.

A Thames Pilot told me years ago that if anything was dredged up out of the river, they didn't trouble bomb disposal, just took it down and dumped it at sea. I thought he meant the middle of the North Sea, but perhaps this is what he meant!

Camera just now was pointed at Waverley at Southend Pier - must be a good camera.