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| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | SS Kielce |
| Namesake | Kielce |
| Builder | Pennsylvania, Beaumont, Texas |
| Launched | 1944 |
| Fate | collision, sank, 8 September 1946 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Steamer |
| Displacement | 1,896 t (1,866 long tons; 2,090 short tons) |
| Length | 250 ft (76 m) |
| Beam | 41 ft (12 m) |
| Propulsion | One turbine (in 1945?) |
| Speed | 10.5 knots (19.4 km/h; 12.1 mph) |
SS Kielce was a
"polish steamer on charter to the US Maritime Adminstration with a cargo of bombs, bullets and other ammunition."[1]
"in July 1967 to neutralize the contents of the Kielce, a ship of Polish origin, sunk in 1946 off Folkestone in the English Channel.
During preliminary work the Kielce, containing a comparable amount of ordnance, exploded with force equivalent to an earthquake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale, digging a 20-foot (6 m) deep c rater in the seabed and bringing "panic and chaos" to Folkestone, although no injuries"[2]
"1. In 1946 the Kielce, a ship of Polish origin, built in 1944, was on charter to the US forces, sailing from Southampton to Bremerhaven, when it was in collision and sank in the English Channel off Folkestone. The ship was of 1896 gross tonnage, 250 ft long, 41 ft berth and drawing just over 20 ft. It had a “full cargo of bombs and ammunition” although no cargo manifest has ever been traced. 2. In the early 1950s an unknown wreck was chartered at 51o02’20” N, 01o 13’33” E, and it was not until ten years later, when Trinity House awarded several contracts for the removal of wrecks in the Channel, that this was identified as the Kielce and confirmed to contain ammunition. 3. In 1966 the Folkestone Salvage Company was given a contract to clear the wreck, to give 50 ft clearance at MLWST, and part of the contract called for the dispersal of the explosive stores. During their preliminary work to clear collapsed hull plating, the Salvage Company fired two cutting charges on the hull without serious effect. On firing the third, however, at 1159 hours BST on 22 July 1967, a large explosion occurred which “brought panic to Folkestone’s town and chaos to the beaches “. ... A magnitude of 4½ indicates a yield of 2000 tons of TNT, when fully contained in water or in a dense rock. The Kielce explosion was not fully contained although, as indicated above, a small proportion of the total energy release was propagated acoustically. Hence, although the total energy released may have been higher than expected from 2000 tons of TNT, the proportion of the energy propagated through the water and the sea-bed will have been equivalent to that released by that weight of explosive “fully contained”." [3]