It seems hard to get a full story regarding these barges. They are of reinforced concrete construction and date to World War 2. They are Tank Lighters, commonly used for carrying fuel or water and it is likely they were constructed as support vessels for the D-Day landings of 1944 but it seems that they were not robust enough and were never used as part of the landings fleet.
The barges were war surplus and were towed here in 1953 and sunk to shore up the estuary flood defences which had been damaged by severe storms and have remained there ever since.
There are 16 barges on the shore line and visibilty depends on tide level which was quite high when I visited today on the way home from
Hornchurch but you still get a good idea of what remains of these historic vessels.
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