IT’S a terrifying, utterly terrifying, thought that anMP has raised this week, reminding us of the explosives-filled sunken wreck of the RichardMontgomery in the Thames off Shoebury and questioning whether it might be a target for terrorists.

Gordon Henderson, the Member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey, was assured in the Commons that there is 24-hour patrolling and surveillance of the wartime Liberty ship. Many such official reassurances have been given over the years.

The Montgomery – named after an Irish-born soldier who settled in America, was elected to Congress and fought in the war against the British in Canada– went aground in August 1944.

An inquiry determined she had been incorrectly directed to an inappropriate berth for her size and cargo.

Her hull cracked open, her back was broken. Some of the explosive cargo was salvaged. Much remained, submerged – and still remains. Hence this latest reminder of her presence off our coastline and fears expressed in some quarters of any possible or potential attack by terrorists.

It is the latest of many reminders, back through the years, of the presence of the Montgomery.

I have a copy, still, of a very detailed, lengthy report published some 43 years ago by the then Southend and District Chamber of Trade and Industry.

It was compiled, after lengthy inquiries and site visits, by David Atkinson, then a Southend councillor and member of the Kent and Essex Sea Fisheries Committee, later an MP, with Rochford Hundred Historical Society secretary Richard Baker and David Cotgrove, chairman of the local affairs committee of Southend Chamber of Trade.

The late David Cotgrove, a longtime Essex County councillor and keen yachtsman who lived in Shoebury, gave me a copy.

Its conclusions included these chilling words: “The wreck is subject to a variety of disturbances and since it is not physically secure against any interference, we can only conclude that the nearby centres of population are exposed to a serious explosive hazard which will continue undiminished so long as the bombs remain.”

Well, thankfully this dire forecast has not come about since those words were written in early 1972.

Thankfully, there have been no ghastly endings to occasional reports of individuals in recent times getting too close to, even onto, that sunken wreckage.

Reassuring responses from “on high” have been heard and reported on regularly through the years, with former Southend East MP Sir Teddy Taylor often seeking and demanding updates and guarantees.

Maybe our present members also now might seek the very latest of official information, now that one of their fellow MPs, Gordon Henderson, has lately brought the Montgomery back into the news with concerns over any possible terrorist threat.