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Keeping the River Medway clear of hazards was dangerous work for the crew of Medway Rhino

No one knows the Medway like Derek Collins. As skipper of the salvage vessel Medway Rhino for 36 years, his work involved exploring the surface of the river and its murky depths.

His crew dredged up bits of a First World War battleship, a Second World War anti-submarine net, live bombs and parts of crashed aircraft. He spoke to Memories reporter Peter Cook.

Derek Collins’ life started with a bang, a big one. “I was born in 1941 at 9.20pm” he said. “At 9.30 a German bomb landed close to our home in Orchard Street, Rainham.

“The house was near an anti-aircraft battery. The bomb shattered all the glass in the house and did tremendous damage, so we moved to Station Road.

“But I remember us kids visiting the gun site after the war. In the middle was this great big hole where the bomb had exploded.”

Derek Collins with a portrait of the Medway Rhino at his home
Derek Collins with a portrait of the Medway Rhino at his home

Mr Collins’ father was a park keeper in Gillingham. His grandfather was a barge skipper. After leaving school, he first got a job at a ship breaker’s yard, but before long had joined the London and Rochester Trading Company as mate aboard the motor barge Melissa.

He later became skipper of a barge called the Raven but it was the prospect of marriage that brought about the switch to the Medway Rhino.

As a barge skipper, Mr Collins never knew if he would be able to get home of an evening.

The Medway Rhino sets out on another mission
The Medway Rhino sets out on another mission

The work of the Rhino was more predictable and offered reasonable prospects of a home life for him and his wife Maureen.

In 1968, when he first went aboard the Medway Rhino, the Medway Conservancy was in the process of taking over responsibility for the light buoys in the river and outside.

“We were always busy,” he said. “There are well over 100 light buoys in the river and its approaches.

"Our job was to go alongside, put a wire under the chain, pick the chain up, disconnect the buoy, then pick up the sinker, clean it, check the chain was okay and then put it back down again."

Derek Collins (right) with crew members Pasty Butler and Peter Lane
Derek Collins (right) with crew members Pasty Butler and Peter Lane

One of the regular jobs was to visit the wreck of the Richard Montgomery, lying in the estuary off Sheppey, to survey the light buoys round it and change them periodically.

They would also help with Admiralty surveys of the wreck, anchoring as close as possible so that a diver could be put down to investigate.

Richard Montgomery was a Second World War Liberty ship that sunk and broke in two, with half her cargo of munitions still on board. There have long been fears that she could explode with devastating consequences.

SS Richard Montgomery
SS Richard Montgomery

“I never felt worried,” said Mr Collins. “The diver explained to me how deeply buried she was in the sand, which comes virtually up to her deck. There would be sand inside her as well. I’m no expert but I think that would absorb any explosion that occurred.”

The Rhino also helped clear away sections of the First World War battleship HMS Bulwark which inexplicably blew up in Kethole Reach.

Another task was to recover a Second World War boom net at the bottom of Gillingham Reach. It had been laid between the two island forts Darnett and Hoo. It was made of large steel rings all linked together

“We put a grapnel down and just kept winding and winding on the winch until it lay in a heap on deck,” said Mr Collins. “That would have been in the 1970s. There were anchors at either end but the floats had gone of course.”

There were occasions when fishermen asked the Rhino crew to investigate objects that were snagging their nets.

One of these turned out to be the engine of a Messerschmitt 109 which had crashed into the sea. Another reminder of the war was a propeller and boss-housing from a Junkers 88.

The Messerschmitt 109 fished up by the Rhino crew
The Messerschmitt 109 fished up by the Rhino crew

Both this and the engine are now housed in the Brenzett Aeronautical Museum, near Ashford.

“We were often asked to do jobs like this by the fisherman,” said Mr Collins. “And they always gave us some fish for our trouble.”

“Occasionally we would pick up bombs and munitions, especially near the Richard Montgomery.

“We’d hand them over to the bomb disposal people and they would take them ashore on the Isle of Grain and blow them up. Some of them were about 3ft long.

“Fortunately one of our engineers had served in the Navy during the war and he knew what everything was.”

Mr Collins, who now lives in Minster, Sheppey, has been retired for more than 15 years now, and Rhino has been sold into private ownership.

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