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Oh boy, a full scale experiment of the shelf life and stability of high explosives in a saltwater environment.

Can’t believe you covered this story. I’m from Southend and have seen this ship numerous times.

When I was a boy in 1959 and my father was assigned to MAAG Taiwan our family sailed on a Victory ship (the USS General J.C. Breckinridge) from Frisco to Taiwan, which took at least ten days or longer--and this 5th grader loved every minute of it!

The Richard Montgomery is also a great example of the common government employee sentiment, "I'll be retired long before that happens."

Saw one of these ships in summer of '86, when I was working in Halifax harbour (where many of the WW2 convoys departed from). It had been towed in and after a day or so was towed out to be a target in some naval exercise off Iceland, as I recall. Big, ugly and decrepit, she still had a quiet grace about her as she awaited her fate. She was a somber reminder of the courage of the merchant mariners who braved the wolf packs to get much needed supplies to Britain.

Great episode. For some reason, it brought to mind the SS Atlantus, a concrete ship built in 1918 by the Liberty Ship Building Company in Georgia. I used to visit the wreck many years ago near Cape May, NJ.

I would imagine that cost isn't the only prohibiting factor. How safe could it be to attempt to remove those explosives from a rusting, sunken ship? Who would be willing to take the risk?

One of these ships is on display periodically here in Sacramento, California...the Jeremiah O'Brian...the engine room was used to film some of the Titantic scenes, and I've toured it twice. The welds are pretty rough, no surprise they were designed for a 5 year life...! It does have the ability to move under it's own power...

Who would have thought a detailed historical story about a ship from almost 75 yrs ago could start arguments in the comments. Thank You, History Guy, for the bonus entertainment as well as the history lesson. Thumbs Up 👍

My Grand father, already a WW1 Vet was on a merchant marine vessel that was torpedoed early in the war he survived despite being only a few yards from the U-boat when it surfaced he came home and promptly enlisted in the Navy figuring he'd prefer to be on a ship that could shoot back

My Father was a seaman with the Merchant Marines, His last Liberty ship was the Mariposa, he was on one other that was torpedo'ed in the N. Atlantic he was one of 13 survivors but I have forgotten the name of that ship, as Merchant Marines they never got any Veteran status, or assistance, untill he was in his 70s.

Another adage that may apply: If I do nothing I can't be blamed.

I already knew about the Montgomery, but I had to see your take on it. Well done, Sir! Well done!

My old sailing haunts were around the Thames/Medway Estuary. I've sailed right up to the Montgomery. The exclusion zone consists of a few warning buoys, bells and beacons. Medway Ports Authority boats were a rare sight around the wreck. One good thing came out of it. It saved the Medways towns from "Boris Island". Sheerness is like Sheer-ness pronounce the "ness".

One thing I’d love to see from you is coverage on the SS Selma and the rest of the US’ fleet of concrete ships. They were made early in the 1910s and were made to conserve steel. The Selma is scuttled near seawolf park in Galveston Texas. I just think a ship made of concrete is history that deserves to be remembered 😉

I cannot see how it could be a bigger bang than the Halifax explosion. That was equivalent to 2,900 tonnes of TNT. There are 1,400 tonnes left on this ship.

I'd like to see a primer on the Liberty Ship, with images inside and out. All us history nerds know about the Liberty Ship, but many of us have never got into the guts of the vessels. Also, the Ghosts of Arkangel would make a good video.

Thanks! I often wish my teaches and professors would have had the enthusiasm and humorous presentation.

The stories are well told and interesting, the length is just right. The music at the beginning and end is not really needed. It is also loud and abrasive. Thank you for your efforts.

Google review of the S.S. Richard Montgomery: "Had a blast, food was the bomb, atmosphere was great."

I'm a new Army transporter just finishing up A.I.T. I was taught about the liberty ship at the Army Transportation Museum at Fort Eustis. it''s pretty cool seeing this video!

I remember reading several stories about this over the years. You should do a story on the Easter eggs scattered about Truk Lagoon. Yeah one hell of a mess there too!

I went on my 1970 honeymoon cruise on what was a Liberty Ship. The Homeric by Home Lines. You never cease to amaze me. Keep up the great work.

Excellent short, I really enjoyed this and your other pieces of history that should be remembered. I live off the Essex coast and have seen the Monty rusting away in the Thames Estuary off Southend for years but this is the first time I have heard the full story.

I was going to write about a ship wreck off the north coast of Bali that I have dived several times since the early 1990's. I thought all this time I had been diving a liberty ship so I tried to Google her name. Turns out I had been diving the USAT "Liberty". You can see my confusion, and now I know why I never could properly get the name of the vessel at the dive site... I knew the name all the time! Built in 1918, she was torpedoed and beached during WWII. She slid off the beach in 1963 during an eruption of Gunung Agung volcano. It has been fascinating seeing how she is gradually turning from ship to reef over the last 25 years or so. I hope I get another dive chance one of these days. Maybe a good story for a History Guy eposide? I'd like to see it!

This is the first history guy where I have something of a personal connection. I worked for a now defunct steel making company Thamesteel in Sheerness a few years ago and learnt about this from the locals then - strangely it is not that well known in the rest of Kent, though apparently my grandfather used to talk about it. From the beach it is quite evident.

as a side note: the U.S. Merchant Marine operated at least one Liberty ship well up into the 1980's: the renamed USNS Bowditch, she ran aground sometime in the 80's and broke her keel and was declared unsalvageable.

I am a Tender sailor...spent my time on AD's...never heard of an Auxiliary ship AK till now, GREAT JOB.

I stayed at a campsite last year that looks out over the wreck. I didn't realise what it was at the time but came across a plaque that explained it. Not sure I want to go back to that campsite...

I used to live near Sheerness, was always surprised by how they just left it all there.

I've lived a few miles from an Air Force Base for the past 30 years. Part of the base was used as a range to train pilots during all of WWII. They are still finding munitions (typically 250 lb types or smaller) on the base and an AF team comes in and detonates them. The first time that happened, I was in the kitchen looking straight at the base and I watched the concussion come across the valley betwen the hill I live on and the hill where the bombs were detonated, my windows bow in when it hit the house, and all the dishes rattle. That was from 2 250lb 'training' bombs. They rise the surface over the years with the freeze/thaw cycle AND, they also float to the surface of ponds as they deteriorate. The last one was reeled in by a bass fisherman. Even after nearly 80 years, they are still considered dangerous and are detonated and LOUD. Also, look at all of the cookies still being found (and detonated) in Germany.

Does anyone else find it a bit ironic that a ship built by Catholic Scotch/Irish-Canadians, named after an Irish American general from the American Revolution, ended up in the Thames with enough explosives to turn the houses of parliament back into swamp land? It must be the ghost of General Montgomery finally getting his revenge on the Brits for his failure to invade British Canada. ;-)

Remember many years ago, seeing the mast tops sticking out of the water. Not sure if they still are, but there are still the bouys around it to keep shipping clear. But, not only do you have the Harbour facilities along the Thames estuary, but the port of Sheerness, literally only hundreds of yards away, is/was a busy port.

As a Londoner I had no idea about this. Great bit of history, history guy.

That thing is carrying over 6 times the explosives that blew the Arizona to pieces (she had 500 tons of ammunition in her forward magazine). On an aside, my Dad was at Pearl Harbor on a cruiser that was moored about 1000 yards astern of the Arizona. As an assistant gunnery officer, Dad's general quarters station was in Sky Forward where he was responsible for directing fire for the ship's starboard battery of 5' 25 AA guns. While he was directing fire at the torpedo bombers as they made their runs down Southeast Loch, which acted as a kind of bowling alley leading towards Battleship Row, he saw a formation of horizontal bombers approaching the battleships from south west. He re-directed his battery to engage the horizontal bombers but kept getting countermanded by the ship's gunnery officer to target the torpedo bombers. Dad, who had graduated from Annapolis in 1940, had a close classmate, a guy by the name of "Bud", in Arizona's sky forward who was also an assistant gunnery officer. When the Arizona blew up, Dad watched a piece of her number 1 turret's foreplate assembly, which weighed a couple tons, sail across the harbor like the cork out of a pop-gun and he thought "I'm glad I'm not in Bud's shoes". Ironically, my Dad's nickname was Bud too.

The only adage I know is: never put off til tomorrow what you can let someone else do today. Great video again, really enjoy all of your amazing video's; I learn about things I'd never had an interest for!

I have heard it said that bad news doesn’t get better with age. Thank you THG for confirming that statement. You always do a fantastic job sharing your knowledge and love of history with others that love history...thank you!

Thanks History Guy - true stories are the best stories and you have thousands! This is my favorite channel on KZfaq - Keep up the good work! 😎🥂😎

You're like my new Mr. Peabody. Enjoy your commentary ~ Sherman

Hi History Guy! I've recently encountered your site and am enjoying your videos. Today's video about "Monty" is awesome - scary, tragic, funny, and thought provoking. Your presentation is always great, but in this video you have truly excelled. Keep up the great work. Thanks, Rich

I really love your videos. Always something new to learn, and I love how clear and concise you are. Keep it up. This is one of the best channels on youtube. :)

This was a suggested video by KZfaq. In one of those great oddities of life, last week I was watching a video about a barge - the Leontyne - and two guys that were taking her to France to barge the canals to the Rhine and then the Danube. As they were taking the Leontyne down the Thames they commented about passing the Richard Montgomery and her precarious state which peaked my curiosity. The google search information was somewhat sparse. A bit on Wikipedia but nothing on Google Earth. She is not even marked as a shipwreck and you cannot see an image of her location where she sank in the estuary. This video was very helpful and informative. The algorithms of Google/KZfaq are a great puzzle. Thank you for such a "timely" and interesting video!!

Love the 5 minutes today. Thank you.

I do indeed love history, A big thanks to to the History guy and his beautiful History Cat.

Some of the bulkheads of the Liberty Ships were built in Asheville NC, a city near where I live. The bulkhead sections were shipped by rail to shipyards on the east coast for assembly.

Just came across you.. Thank you History Guy you have taught me something new today..

Outstanding video and presentation

Well, that's definitely a bit of a sticky wicket for London, no doubt.... I hope they clean that stuff up soon. Thanks for sharing, History Guy... I found your channel a couple days ago and it's definitely awesome. Great to meet you.

The early Liberties could break in two as the welding technology was not fully understood. My grandad was an engineer on the White Star liner Britannic doing troopshipping. He said the Liberties were not popular as a posting until the cracking at hatches was understood and cured.

the st.johns river ship builders company is still active today on the st.johns river. they mainly build large private yachts and some tug boats and barges.

Ha! Much to my chagrin, as a younger man I had been such a procrastinator, when it came to laundry, that I went out and bought new clothing to stave off the chore. Good piece.

This is turning into one of my favorite channels. Thumbs up!

Great, as ever. I've sailed in a small boat past those masts. Quite remarkable!

Another great video, am binge watching, been here for over an hour.Keep up the great work

I was on the U.S.S. Diamondhead AE-19 in 1971, that was Commissioned in 1945 and immediately mothballed as it was not needed at that time... She was finally scrapped in 1973 ⚓

I love the subtle wry commentary. :)

I was once in an area in North Carolina where there were signs warning people that the woods still may contain unexploded ordnance from the Civil War. War is messy.

Another good piece of History from Hg. Shipwrecks are fascinating for the history they represent. If you have Google Earth on your PC-look up the kmz files add on for channel wrecks.Its so many the markers almost block out map details.

Very high quality, informative and entertaining videos....I thank you.

The Liberty ship SS E. A. Bryan exploded at the Port Chicago Naval Station July 17, 1944 taking with it the brand new Victory Ship SS Quinault Victory, while loading munitions. Between the ships and what was on the pier, they estimated 2000 short tons of TNT detonated. This would be a great one to remember. My father was an eye witness, and was consumed with the story his whole life.

This ship is just over a mile from where i'm typing this. The locals around here just seem to forget it exists, with only a few buoys and the occasional mast at low tide as a reminder.

Another good read, er, watch. I had hoped you'd mention Kaiser's welded liberty boats and how they made production faster. One boat was made in 24 hours. I seem to recall some high-ranking German official noting the rate of production of liberty ships and realizing we were building them faster than they could be sunk, hence the war was over. Hopefully somebody here will chime in.

Geez. you know, you do such a fantastic job here. I think everybody who leaves a comment here should call the History channel, curiosity stream and the department of education and tell them to buy this guy's videos. Everybody remember schoolhouse rock? This should be the new Schoolhouse Rock. Hey history Guy, Time to educate our floundering children. A new "History Guy Rock between Saturday cartoons. Do they still have cartoons on Saturday mornings?

When we lived in northern New Jersey in the late 1960s, there were dozens of “mothballed” liberty ships moored in the Hudson River north of the city. They were used for storage of surplus grain. We’d see them when driving up Route 9 along the Hudson River in the Catskills. I recall being very impressed by the number of them that were there. Not long after that they began decommissioning and scrapping them. navy.memorieshop.com/Reserve-Fleets/Hudson-river/index.html

That's a great story!Thanks!

A liberty boat we tied up opposite in Kharg Island, Iran about 1972.. The SS 'Erna Elizabeth' of New York built 1944 I think.. I was in the much bigger and newer tanker 'British Argosy' .. we went aboard and it was like stepping back 40 years.. 6 man cabins, steel accomodation bulkheads , very spartan, and no alcohol allowed on board.. We invited them over, to our Crew Bar where they could drink anything they wanted, but they were very nice polite guys, and only had a beer or two each.. they were amazed at our single cabins and en suite showers..

So well done, I subscribed and gave a thumbs up. I like your cap collection. There's some interesting history there, too.

I'm a ARMY 12-B. The M29 cluster bomb, an almost 1:1 copy of the German "butterfly bomb", each bomb has 24 bomblets, each one is in it's own "transformer" like shell that opens and arms via Arming Spindle , they are more than likely encapsulated in rust and marine growth making them a "Ticking Time Bomb" in the Safe direction.

Very interesting information. My father served on Liberty's & Victory's during WW2. Sadly, he passed away when I was 4 years old at the age of 35. I am now seeking out such things as his Maritime Service Records in order to piece together a little of our family history. It would be interesting to cover the per capita losses of the Merchant Mariners in WW2 relative to the other branches of military service. Best regards, Ken

I left a comment earlier just to say again awesome fellow. Thank you keep it coming. I was wondering if you would talk about your background on shelves. How they were acquired and their history. Thanks again, Jim.

I’m 50 now but grew up in Whitstable, a coastal town opposite the island of Sheerness, and I had no knowledge of SS. Richard Montgomery.

Excellent episode,,but then they always are Sir! We often see the superstructure of the Montgomery sticking out at low tide as we live by the Thames :)

I wish I could find out more about my Dad's ship Liberty or Victory Ship "Thoreau" I think. It was called "The Bomb Ship". Made it through a North Atlantic storm, 1945 or just after. Bombs got loose, were rolling around in the hold. Was landed in Savannah, I think as aftermath and for safety not at NY or Charleston. I think that there was a newspaper article "They Made It" telling about it. I actually had that article but it was in bad condition. Couldn't read much more than the headline. Poor photos. Wired an SOS. A result of which: All ships were ordered AWAY from it for fourty Nautical miles. Sincerely, William Pietschman (Dad same name) Crew also used to shoot free floating mines (numerous) with rifles. He also went to Murmansk and was very lucky, a lot weren't.

to give y'all an idea of how overloaded liberty ships could be, I remember hearing the old captain of the Jeremiah O'brien state that she was sometimes overloaded to the point she was stuck on the bottom by the time they were done and had to be removed by tugs...

"MISTY PICTURE" was run on 14 May 1987. The explosive consisted of 4685 tons of an Ammonium Nitrate and Fuel Oil (ANFO) mixture equivalent to 3900 tons of TNT. The resulting overpressure from the detonation simulated the approximate equivalent airblast of an 8 kiloton nuclear device. --Lt. D. Lehr, USN. "Report AD-A283 521: MISTY PICTURE EVENT - Test Execution Report".

The town of Montgomery,Texas as well the county where the town sits is named after the Gen.Richard Montgomery. It is also the birthplace of the Lone Star Flag of Texas...

'The Half Monty'

The Liberty ship was a compromise in speed of construction versus safety. Several cracked while underway. At least one sank for that reason. The bad welding plan was modified and later ships were not so brittle.

According to Wikipedia, there has been a recent development: In June 2022, the Royal Navy and a private contractor will remove the ship's masts which protrude above the water. The concern is that the constant tides apply pressure to the masts, and therefore the rest of the ship.

Looking at this, you may wish to consider a show on the Flanders Mines, from late WW1. Kilotonnes of ammonal explosives still in place to blow up the German front line trenches from 1917/18, which were supposed to be removed after the Armistice, but thy never were and all the plans and maps were destroyed after the war. Some time between the 1950's and 1980's (varies on who is telling the story) allegedly one of them 'went off' during a thunderstorm and this was only discovered when the farmer came out the next day to find his field of potatoes missing. There have been some modern explorations of the tunnels (color photos) and the tunnels are still intact and filled with rubberised sacks of explosives stacked up, ready to go - but no one is crazy enough to try to move anything.

I thought that the Halifax explosion was the biggest to date.You might also want to note that in WW1 a number of the mines set up by the British did not detonate and he explosives are still there. Excellent episode and great series

There was a bigger Explosion in the South Pacific of a Munitions Ship struck by a Kamikaze and is on Film, its so unbelievable when you see it, I heard there were two such incidents during the War.

Good round up of a tricky subject. Living in Kent (but happily about 35km from the SS Richard Montgomery) we've always known that there might be an issue with all this ammunition one day. Even 75 years on, this could still be a potential threat to the East End of London and the conurbations in North West Kent. As you point out though, who's going to make the decision to have a poke around, let alone volunteer to dive into the wreck. All very tricky, so perhaps leaving this sleeping dog lie is the best approach? There's a very good newsreel report, available on KZfaq, showing the April 1947 detonation of c.7,000 tonnes of redundant WW2 explosives in the Heligoland Islands. This gives some idea of what the c.3,000 tonnes of HE aboard the Monty might do were there to be an unfortunate incident. Moving a fully-laden Liberty Ship, into water too shallow for its draught, must rank as the ultimate in gold-plated, ocean going, maritime muppetry!

For a number of years while working in the area I used to eat my lunch overlooking the Thames estuary at this point with the Monty's masts clearly visible a short way off shore. The river at this point is fully estuarine with water with a clarity such that a viewing distance would be likely to be substantially less than a foot, as well as having strong tides with treacherous currents and a significant tidal range. I guess there could be a lack of people willing to dive in to retrieve the munitions by touch.

Had the pleasure to work on, and sail on the American Victory in Tampa Florida.

My grandmother was a welder who helped build liberty ships. She was a small person. She told me she spent the whole war in a dark hole welding. She would fit inside the tanks and such, so that’s where they put her daily....

😂 funniest history guy video yet 😂

I’m from Sheerness. We’ve lived with this for decades and we really don’t think about it that much to be honest…it’s just one of those things, so to speak . No one calls it “Monty” either and not sure why this is reported. It’s Just “the wreck or the Montgomery” . Anyway, most people consider it safe with the bombs now entombed in soft cool sand. That said, the MOD have contracted a marine salvage firm to remove the remaining masts later this year as they are in danger of collapsing. Will be sad to see them removed as it’s always been something we point out to newcomers to Sheerness.

Splendid work, sirrah!

Wow! That Montgomery! Just sitting there... and at any time, without any apparent change in circumstances and with no warning whatsoever, it could explode! A situation not entirely unfamiliar to married men.

The Minor Scale test by DTRA was 4744 tons of ANFO with a TNT equivalency of 4.2 kilotons of energy released and is to date the largest non-nuclear explosion.

Just a note in passing, it's the "Great Nore Anchorage," not the "Great North Anchorage." The Nore was also the site of the notorious Nore Mutiny of 1797, which followed on the heels of the Spithead Mutiny of the same year, but with a far different outcome....

Have you ever thought about doing a program about February 18, 1952 when two Liberty ships ( the SS Pendleton and the SS Fort Mercer) broke apart off the east coast of the US?

And just to make matters worse, because thousands of tons of high explosive in the middle of a busy port isn't bad enough, we now have a LNG port in the area. Sod's Law (Murphy's Law) being what it is, if a ship did ever hit the Montgomery and accidentally trigger all the explosives, I'd lay good odds on an LNG ship being at least close by, if not the trigger ship itself lol. I live upriver from the wreck, the River Medway which empties into the Thames estuary not far from the Montgomery. The wreck is almost perfectly positioned to do as much damage as possible with a single explosion, though I would be surprised if any tidal wave actually reached London (particularly the City of London itself), since the Thames has a lot of large bends, each of which would absorb a lot of the wave's force.

Well the likelihood of all those explosives going off in one big explosion is highly unlikely. It would more than likely be a series of small explosions. If they leave it there long enough the casing will rust away and that will reduce the risk.

Wow, your summation is a clear warning. Scary stuff indeed.

Hey History Guy, would you do an episode on the USS Chenango? She had an interesting history and carried planes to Africa for operation torch I believe. The stories I heard about her second hand through my dad from my grandfather are interesting. Thanks! I love your videos.

I live in Basildon, 15 miles from southend , and have been told if the mongomery goes we are all stuffed as it will be like a tsunami and when that gets to the bends in the thames through London well you can imagine what that's gonna do to the underground and all the houses, warehouses, shops ect. I do know they go and check the wreck regularly to check on it but the problem is time makes explosives more dangerous and one day it will go up and hopefully I'm not gonna be on southend beach cos it will be bloody hell. thank you history guy as I do enjoy your talks :0) liked and subbed too :0)

I live in Southend just a couple of miles from the wreck. You can still see her at low tide.