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Author Topic: Portsmouth Harbour Closed  (Read 2459 times)

Colin Bishop

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Portsmouth Harbour Closed
« on: November 16, 2016, 10:08:33 am »

Portsmouth Harbour and the Historic Dockyard are presently closed due to the presence of an unexploded bomb discovered while dredging for the new carriers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-37997259

That is going to cause a few problems! It's the third one they have found recently.

Colin
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ballastanksian

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Re: Portsmouth Harbour Closed
« Reply #1 on: November 16, 2016, 06:04:08 pm »

The Luftwaffe was doing its best to flatten Pompey for years, so I would expect there to be loads of UXBs down there. Its lucky the divers excavating the Mary Rose didn't come across any as that may have changed history  {:-{
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radiojoe

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Re: Portsmouth Harbour Closed
« Reply #2 on: November 16, 2016, 06:38:55 pm »

This reminded me of when I worked at Camper & Nicholson's, the Marina company built some water front apartments in the late nineties and reclaimed a large area of the mud flats to the side of the marina and after that they were pile driving for months to form the foundations, my office over looked the site and I remember thinking what would happen if just one of the many piles were to find a UXB that could have sunk in the mud over seventy years, so glad they didn't %)
Joe.
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unbuiltnautilus

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Re: Portsmouth Harbour Closed
« Reply #3 on: November 16, 2016, 06:55:57 pm »

Panic over. Towed out and safely disposed of at 4pm, with a bang!
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Nemo

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Re: Portsmouth Harbour Closed
« Reply #4 on: November 16, 2016, 06:59:31 pm »

This reminded me of when I worked at Camper & Nicholson's, the Marina company built some water front apartments in the late nineties and reclaimed a large area of the mud flats to the side of the marina and after that they were pile driving for months to form the foundations, my office over looked the site and I remember thinking what would happen if just one of the many piles were to find a UXB that could have sunk in the mud over seventy years, so glad they didn't %)Joe.

Joe.  In the early 60's, the old wooden groynes along the beach at Hythe in Kent were being replaced with supports made by pile-driving redundant railway lines (post-Beeching!) into the beach. After work was in progress for some weeks, some kind person informed the Council that the beach had been mined during WW2, and wasn't this piling a bit dodgy? Enter Nemo, as one of a Bomb Disosal Squad where we worked for many weeks sweeping the beach for mines, prior to the piling taking place. We found only one live mine - but this justified all the precautions taken - and would have allayed the fears of many - similar to Joe!
A difficult judgement to make depending on all the circumstances and difficulties.
Bob.
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dave301bounty

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Re: Portsmouth Harbour Closed
« Reply #5 on: November 16, 2016, 07:06:05 pm »

 :-))
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dougal99

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Re: Portsmouth Harbour Closed
« Reply #6 on: November 16, 2016, 07:45:32 pm »


Whilst I was in Gibraltar in the late eighties the local authorities decided to fill in part of the harbour and build blocks of flats. A dutch dredging company was employed to dredge sand from the sea bed on the south east of the rock and use it to fill the harbour. What no one appeared to know was that the dredging area had been used as a weapons dump after WW1. The EOD team was kept busy for weeks disposing of the woosh bang ooh nasty. My daughter got quite used to the large explosion from across the bay most evenings.


The EOD team had a little museum and decided to display a practice bomb they had recovered showing the internals. Clamping it in a vice they set about it with a hacksaw. Soon they noticed the distinctive smell of HE, and the exercise was quickly stopped. A check with the MOD historical branch revealed that the colour markings for practice rounds had been different in WW1! Another of life’s little snafus.
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Nemo

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Re: Portsmouth Harbour Closed
« Reply #7 on: November 16, 2016, 08:43:07 pm »

Dougal, When I worked at the Bomb Disposal School, one of the RAF technicians did just what you described to a fuse which had been on display to students for many years - and he lost 2 fingers!
Bob.
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dougal99

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Re: Portsmouth Harbour Closed
« Reply #8 on: November 16, 2016, 09:54:33 pm »

Fortunately, the only damage there was the need for new trousers!  :embarrassed:
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