SOUTHEND is bursting with historical landmarks, but many of those are hidden off the coast in the Thames Estuary. Thanks to JetStream Tours, these relics are far from forgotten. Echo reporter, Ethan Banks, took a trip to see why the tours are adored by residents and tourists alike.
Thanks to a much-loved boat tour company, I joined day-trippers to get close views of pieces of history in the Thames Estuary – the Redsand Towers and the SS Richard Montgomery wreck.
Straight after leaving at 11.45am, JetStream Tours’ Captain Richard Bain was well into his live commentary where he pointed out some notable highlights to us, including the Shoebury boom that protected shipping and London from attack by submarines.
Just as the clock struck 1pm, the seven dark, eerie and abandoned Redsand Towers came into clear sight, and everyone hurried to the bow to get snaps.
As we crept closer, we were now within inches of the forts. The forts, which sit just above the water, where designed by Guy Maunsell in 1943 to help shoot down enemy planes intending on bombing London in the Second World War. We spent 20 minutes circling them as other tour goers quickly snapped pics and gazed at their magnificence.
What struck me was learning about the number of urban explorers who have come out here over the years, including a Manchester group who got stuck there overnight during lockdown, were rescued by the RNLI, before each being slapped with a £200 fine.
After this, we headed back towards Southend, with a stop along the way to see the wreck of the SS Richard Montgomery, a US liberty cargo ship that still holds approximately 1,400 tons of explosives after being split in two off Sheerness in 1944.
About 30 minutes later, we arrived at the exclusion zone and saw its tall masts sticking out of the estuary.
It did not seem like we were there long, which is a shame because most people seemed more interested in this as all seats were empty.
Just over three hours after leaving Southend, we headed back with the sound of yet more commentary.
This is where we found out about one of England’s most important 17th century shipwrecks, the London, sinking yards away from Southend Pier in 1665 after mysteriously blowing up on route to Kent and how divers are going down to it to recover artefacts. Shortly after, the cruiser was docked, and everyone stepped off with beaming smiles and heaping praise to Richard.
Overall, this JetStream Tours offering is extremely fascinating and definitely a must for history buffs.
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