The SS Richard Montgomery’s masts are coming down. The bombs are staying put
After decades, the SS Richard Montgomery’s three masts are scheduled to come down in September. Specialist engineers will build a platform beside the wreck and cut the structures below sea level over several weeks. The approximately 1,400 tonnes of wartime explosives in its forward holds will be left exactly where they have been since 1944.
The Montgomery has been a ticking time bomb for 82 years. Sank when the harbor master gave an inadequately deep parking space to the Liberty ship, she ran aground. Almost immediately, a project began to remove her very explosive cargo, but as they did, the ship broke apart. The UK decided to leave it there.
Britain’s famous “bomb ship” is officially stable, continuously monitored, and the government says it is unlikely to explode. It is also gradually corroding beneath three heavy masts that experts do not want falling onto its cargo. The government’s £9.5 million solution is to remove the masts without otherwise disturbing the wreck.
Britain is removing everything except the dangerous part.
the wikipedia article is interesting:
> One of the reasons the explosives have not been removed was the outcome to neutralise the Kielce.... During preliminary work, Kielce exploded [at] 4.5 on the Richter scale, digging a 20-foot crater in the seabed... Kielce was at least 3 or 4 miles from land, had sunk in deeper water, and had "just a fraction" of the explosives
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Richard_Montgomery
If the explosives go off where they are, the water will help contain the pressure wave. If they get pull out of the water and explode, there's likely to be much more damage. I hope they cut the masts short enough that they don’t become hazards in their own right.