ss richard montgomery

[Ivan Cloherty]

From my first deep sea ship (excluding my trawler days) we carried explosives for use in Peruvian and Chilean mines, we carried them in specially constructed magazines in the tween decks, explosives in for;d hatches detonators in aft deck hatches. Most loading was done at Chapman's Reach (R.Thames) a designated explosives handling area. In Peru and Chile the detonators were usually loaded into the last barge which also contained the last of the explosives (we had no control over that) we were glad to see that barge disappearing into the distance.

In the Suez conflict (56) we carried over 6000 tons (not tonnes) of all types, artillery, Naval, aerial shells and detonators and thousands upon thousands of steel jerrycans of aviation and tank fuel, detonators were carried in the same holds as the shells, no explosives or detonators were carried in the holds with the jerry cans of fuel and these holds were fitted with compressed air ejectors to eject the fumes along pipes up the masts, this was done at 0800 and 2000 hrs everyday at sea and in port and it was one of my duties to ensure that this was physically carried out along with one of the engineers and no one was allowed near us whilst performing these tasks for'd and aft.

I should imagine in WWII many rules of normal practice were broken in the loading of ordnance for the sake of expeditious requirements and although Masters and Mates were responsible for the stability and safe carriage (as far as possible) they had no control of what was presented to them and this fell under the control of military authorities whose only concern was to get the ordnance onto the high seas to its required theater of war as quick as possible and they had no expectation of every ship arriving safely, those that didn't arrive were just another statistic. It is easy to criticise this method of operation but desperate times called for different/desperate measures and it was probably an unenviable position being a convoy logistical loader/programmer.

As my father said putting another few 30 -50 ton tanks on deck was nothing to a military planner, but made a hell of a difference to a ship when you consider the average vessel in those days had a DWCC of 5 -10,000 tons as opposed to the giants of today

[j.sabourn]

My short experience on tankers was chief officer and my first cargo was 30,000 tons of Naptha , and tried not to think about , but was loaded up the Gulf for Japan , so imagine it was destined for Vietnam . JS

[cappy]

carried shells ....small arms ammmo and other explosives ...on seperate vessels to cyprus when makarios was carrying on .....and aden when they were shooting up the place .......on a btc tanker we were told they were firing at us but never heard anything or saw any proof of it......funny at that age didnt give a toss .....happy days ..cappy

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Les.
Think wartime, think Americans, and you shouldn't be surprised at the way that ship was loaded. I doubt safety was in their vocabulary.
Des

[Ivan Cloherty]

Hi Les.
Think wartime, think Americans, and you shouldn't be surprised at the way that ship was loaded. I doubt safety was in their vocabulary.
Des

Well all I can say is thank god for the Americans and their logistical ability to build ships faster than the Germans could sink them. We didn't have the ability to build 2704 Liberty ships in the period they built them in, nor did we have the land available to provide the shipyards. Incidentally the first two new Liberty building shipyards were financed by the British Govt, (reverse lend-lease) not a lot of people know that. Also the Americans didn't have any then current yards capable of building merchant vessels over 400' feet long, in fact only 11, yes 11 merchant cargo ships had been built twixt the years 1921 and 1941 as their expertise and priority was in tankers and naval vessels, but lacking in their naval sector were minesweepers and during 1942 27 British trawlers and crews were lent to the USA for operations on their East Coast, again under reverse lend lease. As Admiral Yashimoto said after Pearl Harbour, we have awoken a sleeping tiger and he was proved correct.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

I meant no disrespect to the American war effort, without which I would probably be writing this in German.Des

[Ivan Cloherty]

I meant no disrespect to the American war effort, without which I would probably be writing this in German.Des

I know you didn't Des, I have criticised the USA on many occasions, as at times their decisions do leave one wondering if Alice in Wonderland was true, but on the whole their heart is in the right place. But also having worked with them on their PL480 AID programs, I was oft left shaking my head at some of their decisions but when in difficulty I got more help from American Embassies than I did my own when also working on British AID in tandem. Not that the Yanks liked giving help to a little Brit,('I'm sure it was Brit know it ended in 'it' ) but I had a name from Washington to hand that opened the doors

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Ivan, has there been any news on what is happening on the Montgomery?
Des

[happy daze john in oz]

I know you didn't Des, I have criticised the USA on many occasions, as at times their decisions do leave one wondering if Alice in Wonderland was true, but on the whole their heart is in the right place. But also having worked with them on their PL480 AID programs, I was oft left shaking my head at some of their decisions but when in difficulty I got more help from American Embassies than I did my own when also working on British AID in tandem. Not that the Yanks liked giving help to a little Brit,('I'm sure it was Brit know it ended in 'it' ) but I had a name from Washington to hand that opened the doors

Ivan, looking at the current situation in USA I would sat Alice was written with someone like Biden in mind.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Ivan, has there been any news on what is happening on the Montgomery?
Des

Honestly don't know Des, I used to follow it but haven't for a couple of years, but there is a Govt website where genuine information can be obtained, cannot remember what it was, but a google search should find it Rgds