Engineers have removed the masts from the SS Richard Montgomery, a sunken US warship in the Thames estuary, without triggering an explosion, according to an announcement by UK ministers.
The ship sank in 1944 carrying approximately 1,400 tonnes of munitions. It remains one of Britain's most closely guarded hazards. The wreck has been under constant surveillance for decades due to the risk that shifting cargo or structural failure could detonate the unexploded ordnance.
Officials described the mast removal as a safety improvement. The operation avoided the kind of catastrophic explosion that authorities have long feared could devastate nearby Kent coastal communities and generate a tidal wave affecting London.
The precise details of how the masts were removed and what triggered the decision to act now are not specified in the available information. The announcement marks a rare intervention on a wreck that has otherwise been managed through monitoring rather than active remediation, suggesting either a change in risk assessment or an opportunity that engineers judged safe enough to pursue.
The SS Richard Montgomery remains the subject of ongoing concern. It sits in one of Europe's busiest shipping lanes, making it a permanent fixture in maritime and coastal safety planning.