Mass destruction and death: Doomsday ship risks exploding off the coast of Britain

20 years after a journalistic investigation into the risks of the “doomsday shipwreck”, the British Cabinet announced plans to trim the masts sticking out of the water to reduce their load.

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Although the American ship SS Richard Montgomery ran aground back in August 1944, it is only two kilometers from land and can still explode, writes New Scientist.

Three masts rising above the waves near the coastal town of Sheerness in the UK mark the place where almost 80 years rusted sunken ship.

Interestingly, most of the cargo was removed from the ship back in 1944. But work stopped after the British Admiralty refused to pay workers to unload bombs.

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For the next 80 years, the wreckage rusted and fell apart, and the explosives were unstable. If heavy rotted structures fall into the holds directly on the bombs, this can cause an explosion..

The Explosives Research and Development Center found out in 1972 that it would break almost every window in the city and will summon a 300 meter column of dirt, metal and ammunition shooting 3 km into the air.

This would be one of the world’s largest non-nuclear explosions, causing massive destruction and death.

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An additional worry is the proximity of a giant liquefied natural gas terminal. on the island of Grain: supertankers, heading to the terminal, pass only 200 meters from the ship.

The Ministry of Transport of Britain assured, however, that the wreckage of the ship “is in a relatively stable condition.”

Recall that earlier we wrote that in Britain they successfully tested a rocket engine on plastic waste.