hey look what they are using to carry away a 2nd world war UXB.
Navy detonates 1,000lb wartime bomb May 16 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/m...de/4984944.stm
A 1,000lb German bomb intended to wreak maximum devastation caused only minor irritation when it was finally detonated.
The 7ft-long device was dropped on Birkenhead, which lies opposite Liverpool on the River Mersey, during the Second World War. The penetration bomb had the power to blast through some of the town's fortified docks or submarine pens but failed to detonate and lay undetected until late on Monday night.
It was spotted on the river bed close to the city's Twelve Quays dock during a routine survey by the Royal Navy, which then sent specialist divers to confirm the suspicions. A 200-yard exclusion zone was raised and two passenger ferries - carrying a total of 145 passengers and 101 crew - were ordered to wait further up the river from around 4am on Tuesday.
The Mersey Viking and the Dublin Viking, which had sailed from Belfast and Dublin, were due to arrive in Birkenhead by 6.30am but eventually berthed at about 1pm.
Five merchant vessels were similarly delayed and Merseyside commuters also suffered as two tunnels - one carrying trains and the other cars between Wirral and Liverpool - were closed for nearly an hour from 9am.
A team from the Royal Navy's Northern Diving Group had to wait until low water, at 8.18am, to attach a lifting bag to the bomb and raise it to a depth of about 9ft. A rigid inflatable was then used to tow the bomb out to sea, about eight miles west of Formby Point.
The bomb was sunk and blown up using plastic explosives just after 9pm.
Royal Navy spokesman Neil Smith said the device may have lain undetected for so long because penetration bombs are designed to embed into a target before exploding.
He added: "The Northern Diving Group deals with around 200 World War Two devices per year in Northern England and Scotland, so the fact that these things are still on the go is not a surprise. It is a little more unexpected to find one so close to a city, and that obviously made it more challenging.
"Explosions under water are more powerful than those above water, so clearly we could take no chances with public safety in terms of reverberations affecting ships and tunnels, so some people were delayed. We apologise for any inconvenience but I think people understand that public safety is the main priority."
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