Why Wartime Wrecks are Slicking Time Bombs

Old ships are like old politician...becoming more dangerous everyday!

I thought Howard Hughes siphoned all that off to make his fortune?

I wonder what genius came up with this item that no one can do anything about anyway?

Thousands of tons of high explosive in a sunken WW2 Liberty Ship are threatening Gravesend.

The last report I saw on that ship was that nobody was willing to go into it anymore....

I have sailed past it on many occasions when I used to sail a lot around the UK and Europe........and read the signs on the buoys......60's & 70's.....

With 20:20 hindsight, it should have been cleared years ago....hopefully the main part of the explosive cargo has been destroyed by sea water entry......

I once saw some pictures taken inside by a diver showing a huge mixture of torpedoes and shells etc., all mixed up together. UGH!!!

Scare journalism. All the rage these days.

The gradual release of oil from these vessels is relatively harmless. The sun and wave action breaks down the oil fairly quickly. It's better to just leave it and let nature take its course versus going in there to clean it up. Better chance of creating a bigger mess.

As for munitions, there may be chemicals associated with them that would be better off if removed. These are operations best left to ROV's to keep humans out of harms way. Some explosive materials degrade into chemically unstable compounds and must be handled with extreme care.