Three masts cut off a wreck that still holds about 1,400 tonnes of explosives
What happened
On 19 October 2026, the Maritime Minister, Keir Mather, published a written statement confirming that a long-delayed engineering job in the Thames Estuary is finished. All three masts have been removed from the wreck of the SS Richard Montgomery, the American Liberty ship that ran aground off Sheerness in Kent in 1944 and broke its back. The masts have been delivered to the Historic Dockyard Chatham. The minister said the project was completed ahead of schedule and below forecast costs, which had been projected at £9.5 million. The work was done by cutting the masts below the waterline and lifting them onto a crane barge. The first came out five days after work began in mid-September, the second on 24 September, and the last on 30 September. The reason for doing it was structural. An expert advisory group recommended removal because, as the vessel has aged, the masts have continued to place significant load on a hull that is weakening. The worry was that a falling mast could strike the cargo below. That cargo is the point. The wreck still contains around 1,400 tonnes of explosives, loaded in 1944 and never recovered. The exact contents are not fully confirmed. A defence agency assessment has estimated it could include close to 300 bombs of around 900 kilograms each, plus more than 2,000 cluster bombs.
Why this matters
The SS Richard Montgomery is probably the most carefully watched object in British coastal waters. It sits in shallow water about a mile and a half off Sheerness, in the approach to the Medway and within sight of the Isle of Grain. Its masts were visible above the surface for eighty years, which is why their removal looks, at a glance, like something was taken away. In fact something was taken off. The hull, the cargo and the risk all remain. What changed is one specific failure path. A corroding mast, loaded by tide and weather on a hull that is slowly collapsing, is a heavy object that could eventually come down on munitions. Removing it does not make the wreck safe. It removes one way in which the wreck could stop being stable. That is a modest claim, and the government's own framing is modest. This is risk reduction on a hazard that cannot be eliminated at acceptable cost or risk. Successive reviews have concluded that trying to remove the cargo would be more dangerous than leaving it alone and managing the site, which is why the wreck has been monitored by survey rather than cleared. It also matters because the job was finished early and under budget, which is unusual enough in public infrastructure to be worth noting on its own. Earlier reporting had described the Department for Transport revising its timeframe for the work more than once.
What the evidence actually says
A fair amount of what circulates about this wreck is exaggerated, so it is worth separating what is documented from what is not. Documented: the masts have been removed and taken to Chatham; the minister states the work came in ahead of schedule and below the £9.5 million forecast; the removal was recommended by an expert advisory group on structural grounds; the wreck holds a large quantity of unrecovered Second World War munitions; the site is surveyed regularly and the hull shows signs of deterioration. Less certain: the precise contents of the holds. The figure of around 1,400 tonnes is the standard working estimate. The breakdown into roughly 300 large bombs and more than 2,000 cluster bombs comes from a defence agency assessment, not from a direct inventory, because nobody has opened the holds. Often overstated: the idea that a detonation would send a tsunami up the Thames. That claim appears regularly in coverage and is not what official assessments describe. Modelling of a worst-case event points to a serious local blast, a column of water and debris, and broken windows in Sheerness, rather than a wave travelling up the estuary. It would be a major incident. It is not the scenario some headlines describe. Also worth noting: no explosives were used in the removal. The work was done with divers, cutting equipment and cranes. Some sources give the removal date as September 2026 while the ministerial statement came on 19 October, which is simply the gap between finishing a job and reporting it to Parliament.
Practical advice
If you live near the Medway or sail in the estuary, the practical points have not changed: The exclusion zone around the wreck remains. It is marked on charts and by buoys, and it is enforced. Do not enter it, and do not anchor near it. The masts coming off makes no difference to that. If you find anything on a beach in the area that might be ordnance, do not touch it, photograph it in place, note the location, move away and call 999. This applies to the whole UK coast, not just Kent. For anyone following the site, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Department for Transport publish survey results and updates. Those are the sources to check rather than social media, where the wreck attracts a lot of invented detail. If you want to see the masts, they are at the Historic Dockyard Chatham, which is open to visitors. That is a genuinely interesting outcome: a piece of a wreck nobody can approach has become something the public can stand next to.
What to know
A written statement from Maritime Minister Keir Mather, published 19 October 2026, confirmed that all three masts have been removed from the wreck of the SS Richard Montgomery off Sheerness and delivered to the Historic Dockyard Chatham. Work ran through September, finishing on 30 September, ahead of schedule and below the forecast £9.5 million. An expert advisory group had recommended removal because the ageing masts placed significant load on a deteriorating hull, raising the risk of one falling onto the munitions below. The wreck still holds around 1,400 tonnes of unrecovered Second World War explosives, with the exact contents unconfirmed. No explosives were used in the removal, the exclusion zone remains in force, and the widely repeated claim that a detonation would cause a Thames tsunami is not what official assessments describe. Sources: Department for Transport / GOV.UK, "SS Richard Montgomery mast removal project" (written statement by Keir Mather MP), 19 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/ss-richard-montgomery-mast-removal-project ; Kent Online, "Pictures show complex operation behind SS Richard Montgomery masts removal", October 2026, https://www.kentonline.co.uk/sheerness/news/pictures-show-complex-operation-behind-masts-removal-from-b-346420/ ; Marine Industry News, "SS Richard Montgomery masts removal begins", September 2026, https://marineindustrynews.co.uk/mast-removal-begins-on-sunken-wwii-bomb-ship-in-thames-2/ This article is for general information and does not replace advice from a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified healthcare professional.
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