OT:USS Ling: What To Know Of New Jersey's Lost Submarine Stuck In The Mud

[BROTHERSKINNY]

• What To Know About The Balao-class USS Ling

• The USS Ling As A Museum Ship In The New Jersey Naval Museum

• The USS Ling Today - The WW2 Sub Stuck In The Mud In New Jersey

The United States has many submarine museums all around the country. These are on display in many museums from the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City to the Maritime Museum of San Diego. But there is a submarine that got lost along the way. The USS Ling is a Balao-class submarine. It was once preserved as a museum ship, but today, it is lost and stuck in the mud in New Jersey.
There are many excellent museum ships to be seen around the country. Not all museum ships are abandoned. Most are maintained (like the dreadnought USS Texas now visible in dry dock in Texas). There are navy ship museums all around the nation, from tugboats to mighty aircraft carriers.

What To Know About The Balao-class USS Ling​

The USS Ling is a Balao-class submarine (named after the ling fish) that was built during World War Two. The Balao-class were extremely common in the United States Navy (they completed 120 boats). They succeded in the earlier Gato Class submarines. 14 of the Balao-class submarines were lost during and after the war - including collisions (of which 11 were lost in American service). One, the ARA Santa Fe (S-21), by then in service in the Argentine Navy (formerly the USS Catfish), was destroyed by the British during the Falklands War of 1982.

• Class: Balao-class submarine
• Displacement: 2,500 tons
• Commissioned: 1945
• Decommissioned & Reserve: 1946

The USS Ling was built too late to see any action in the Second World War. She never really had a career in the Navy. In 1946, she was put in reserve, and in 1960, she was converted into a training ship before being stricken in 1971.
Related: Your Guide To the 5 Aircraft Carrier Museums In The USA

The USS Ling As A Museum Ship In The New Jersey Naval Museum​

Instead of being scrapped, she was donated to the Submarine Memorial Association and became a museum ship in the New Jersey Naval Museum in Hackensack, New Jersey. There, she was restored and repainted and opened for public tours. She was the centerpiece of the New Jersey Naval Museum.
Guided tours of the USS Ling were offered to the public that took tourists from her bow to her stern. The visitors were able to see her weaponry, her (cramped) living quarters, and her various equipment. They were able to see her twenty-four torpedoes and her deck gun.
The museum had other attractions, including some mini-submarines. It had a Japanese manned torpedo (called a Kaiten) and a German Seehund (a two-man coastal defense submarine). Other exhibits included a Vietnam War-era river patrol boat and an assortment of torpedoes and missiles. Most of this equipment has been reclaimed and removed from the site.

• Address: 78 River St, Hackensack, NJ 07601, Hackensack
• Opened: 1972

The New Jersey Naval Museum was founded in 1972, but it wasn't to last. It was damaged during Hurricane Sandy and never fully recovered. The land has been sold for redevelopment, and the USS Ling remains grounded and abandoned in the river.
There have been efforts to save the USS Ling, but it seems that as of 2023, these efforts haven't resulted in any resolution for the languishing submarine.
Related: Explore This Abandoned WW2 Submarine Base In France

The USS Ling Today - The WW2 Sub Stuck In The Mud In New Jersey​

The New Jersey Naval Museum has long closed now, and since 2016, it has not been possible to visit the USS Ling.
In 2018, the USS Ling was vandalized with people cutting her interior doors while leaving her hatches open, leading her to be flooded with water.

• Access: Not Accessible To The Public

Her future has been complicated by the water floor in the Hackensack River being drastically reduced meaning that some of the river is no longer navigable. When she was towed up the river, the channel was dredged. But now she is mired and stuck in the muck.
The canal is now too shallow to transport the USS Ling back downstream (and the funds to dredge the canal are not forthcoming). The construction of bridges over the river has also complicated the moving of the forsaken submarine.
The New York Times reported in 2017 that no one seemed to know what to do with her - how to move her or whether she should be restored or scrapped. As of 2023, there haven't been any reports that this was ever solved. Being in the river, she is also not on anyone's property, and no one seemed to accept the responsibility of paying to have her removed.
There are plenty of stunning museums around the country that are actually accessible - including numerous mighty battleships. The oldest navy ship preserved in the USA is the venerable USS Constitution (one of America's first warships).


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[ashokan]