One Mans obsession...

People are really weird when you get down to it. They do all sorts of weird and wonderful thing which makes you think. Don't believe me? Have a look at the SR - 71 Blackbird. An amazing machine which makes you think and makes you wonder how we can create a machine which goes three times the speed of sound. Then we look at something like Nuclear Weapons. They are horrifying. So why am I bringing this up here. Because I have revisited the issue of the SS Richard Montgomery.

There are certain people who are total Legends. Mr Mike Barker MBE is one of these. He has the sort of dedication that I love. Look at his FoI requests and have a look at his responses. They are amazing! He does, however, raise an interesting point; is the SS Richard Montgomery a threat to national security?

Well how do we go about investigating this issue? Let's ask the National Counter Terrorism Security Office if they can help us. Now, this organisation is not subject to the FoI. They have no obligation to answer any question that comes to them. They did, however answer me witht the question “what studies have you done on the SS Richard Montgomery or SS Castellion”. All fairness they did get back in touch with me and stated that this is something that they do not look into. I do want to make a MASSIVE thank you to them. They could said nothing to me and left me hanging. They didn't, and I cannot thank them enough.

So what else can we think of in relation to this? Well, the Department for transport are the ones looking into this. Maybe we could see the reports that they have made by the Ministry of Transport? That would at least show what the MoT has done regarding the testing of the site. What about some of the risk assessments that have been made? The issue with this FoI request is that it was refused, somewhat. What about one that was slightly better worded? How about a request to find out about the explosive on board? Maybe that might give us some insight into what is going on.

Now this is not the only dangerous wreck that there is. There is also the SS Castilian which is sunk off the coast of Anglesey. What about that one? Well there is only one way to find out. The National Assembly for Wales hold no studies for this ship. The Welsh Government has given a lot of cool data on this one.  Now this is great!  So who else has any authority on the system? Asking the Department of Transport; they will get back to me (At time of writing this has just been sent).

This is a blog of two halves. Everything above this was written about a week ago. This bit has been updated. I contacted Angley Council to see if they had any reports on the SS Castilian and they refered me to their archives. After contacting the archives they simply said that they had only one newspaper clipping. Oh well… Never mind.

What about the mines that around the area? The Maritime and Coastguard Agency was contacted about what underwater minefields they are aware of, but they didn't have the information so may be the Ministry of Defence would have the answer. What about the mines being defused? What studies have the MOD done on this? Turns out that they have done no studies on this matter, HOWEVER, this wasn't the end of the story (Section 14 is amazing isn't it?). You see “The MOD information on general sea dumped munitions in the British Isles has been placed in the public domain” which is DIRECTLY linked to the issues of the ships mentioned above. How cool is this! This is not a matter that is confined to ONE area; it's linked to OTHERS!!! AND WE CAN LOOK AT THIS WHENEVER WE WANT!!!

Regarding the SS Castalia,

“the MOD also stated that MOD is aware that there are still shells in the wreck which lead to her designation as a dangerous wreck and the setting up of a 500m exclusion zone around her. The shells were being transported at the time of loss and it was not customary to carry shells fused; as such there has been no requirement to carry out a study into “defusing” the shells”

Oh well… Still, interesting to know this, isn't it?

So what have we learnt? One man's obsession is another man's mundane. After searching and a few FoI we see that have been studies and there have been a lot of information generated. Is it the massive problem that Mike thinks? I don't think so.

It goes to show thought that from one simple question, we generate a LOT of knowledge.