U.S. warship threatens London, UK

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I the 70's I was attached to an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Squadron, clearing the Maplin Sands, tidal sand flats which were due to be the site of London's Third Airport, but had been a testing target range for over a hundred years, and had also acquired ordnance from the Luftwaffe coming up the Thames, sea mines from the estuary, and being an abort dropping ground for the USAAF during WW2. A lot of stuff out there.

IIRC allied aircraft bombs of that vintage (which form a large part of the ships load) can become unstable because the explosive and inert filler separate out under gravity, so they don't need a functioning fuse mechanism (Allied fuses were [censored]. Looked like the inside of a cuckoo clock)

{German stuff was a standardized aluminium cylinder and electrical. I assumed this meant they were safe 40 years on, but apparently they'd found them still with 3/4 of their original charge level.}

Every now and then we'd send an LCT-full of relatively inert stuff out to be dropped in deep water. I was never on these trips but I'm told they passed quite close to that wreck, following the standard shipping route.

Also there was/is a big petrochemical refinery on Canvey Island (?) which would be within the blast radius. And some tanker traffic.

Quite a lot of theoretically Big Issues around there, though the probabilities are no doubt fairly low.
 
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When I saw the title, I thought the USS Nathan James had gone rogue. From The Last Ship to The Lost Ship.
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Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
What about containing it? Cofferdam the wreck, and just fill the bloody thing with concrete?


Not so easy:

[video:youtube]▶ 4:16
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qrs8D7Cr7ys[/video]

The video shows just how close it is to shipping.
NOT JUST ON THE RIVER THAMES the river Medway joins the Thames right at the wreck site.

The area is not only congested, but can also be shrouded in Fog.

The wreck has aready been hit a few times.

If you doubt it could blow, back in 67 a similar munition ship that had ran aground off Folkston in the English Channel was being dismantled/ unloaded when it blew.
the blast recorded 4.5 on the richtor scale.
 
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An explosion occurring inside of hardened concrete may make things worse, since even a small explosion would be forced to detonate the entire load, and then shower the region with hardened concrete chunks.
 
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