Posted on 12/23/2016 6:26:56 PM PST by Coleus
The USS Ling has been berthed in the Hackensack River for more than 40 years and it might be stuck there.
The 312-foot, 2,500-ton World War II-era submarine is the featured exhibit of the New Jersey Naval Museum, which occupies a trailer on land that was once the headquarters of the North Jersey Media Group, which was sold to Gannett in July and publishes The Record. The Ling has been anchored off the riverbank behind the newspapers former headquarters for decades.
Now, however, museum officials are grappling with the logistical and financially daunting challenge of moving the submarine, which by all accounts is mired in muck and is moored in a section of the river too shallow for the sub to navigate.
I dont know what it would take to get her out of the mud or if that would even be possible, said Hugh Carola, program director at Hackensack Riverkeeper, an environmental group.
Earlier this year, the museums lease was terminated by Stephen Borg, former publisher of The Record. Borg, whose grandfather negotiated the 1974 deal to lease land to the museum for $1 a year. The city Planning Board voted in May to subdivide the nearly 20-acre site into four lots for redevelopment, which could include a hotel and 700 residences.
(Excerpt) Read more at northjersey.com ...
As far as the bridges go, the Court St/Ft. Lee Road bridge was rebuilt not too long ago (the previous structure was decrepitizing before your eyes so to speak, and they had lowered the load limit down to 4 tons or something minuscule like that.) If whatever Fed agency that determines what waters are navigable lists that portion of the Hackensack River as a navigable waterway, the bridge rebuild would have to include an operable draw (actually this one is a swing bridge) so the bridge South of the Ling should be operable now.
There is little point in attempting to float the Ling farther upstream on the Hackensack river (it'll only get shallower) but again even though the NYSW railroad bridge immediately North of the Ling hasn't opened in decades if that portion of the Hackensack is classified as navigable, should something require passage, the NYSW must somehow open the bridge. I understand that should the bridge require opening there is a lead time to inform the railroad, but I have not specifically asked any of my rail road contacts if that particular bridge is operable or the status (I can tell you about the Overpeck Creek draw though - it's a bit further south ;-)
The way out of there is South to more open waters. Assuming the hull is still intact and she floats OK (it will never dive again because they cut through the pressure hull to put in a access stair when it was on active display) it could be towed out at high tide once free of the muck. Which puts it back to a money issue.
The major problem with dealing with the silt issue? Its right there in the article.. "Hugh Carola, program director at Hackensack Riverkeeper, an environmental group." He and his minions will breech-birth a cow should anyone start stirring up the mud..
For the lay of the land, here's a link to the GooGle Earf view. The bow of the Ling is facing downstream toward clear water...
My sister’s boat sat tied to the dock all summer, with nobody ever taking it out. We started calling it the Ling II.
4) Explosives.
These people say that because they don't know a single bloody thing about ships, and they are effeminate environmental pussies to boot.
If you can get a 55,000 ton battleship out of far deeper mud...
Or right a battleship with its superstructure embedded in the mud...
You can get a little submarine free. Good God. If we had to depend on people like these to do anything useful, we should just surrender in advance and save our foes the trouble.
No kidding. It isn’t rocket science, but these people aren’t scientists, they are environmentalists, which means they worship gaia instead of thinking about how to solve a problem.
Doesn’t the Ling still belong to the Navy?
I fear it will come to that.
The Navy has no interest, apparently.
“Plus the bridges north and south of her are, er, inoperable and cannot be opened last I knew”
It’s a submarine!
bttt
Might be a sub, but it’s in a river that is silted up and reportedly only 10’ deep...
Somebody might think of something:
I’ll buy the periscope, if the price is right. The old Oregon Museum of Science and Industry had a WWII sub’s periscope installed in their building, and I always thought I’d like to have one of those.
The rising oceans from the icebergs melting should lift it up any moment now according to algore
High pressure water (fire truck) will release it from the mud.
It's a submarine! Submerge it (partially) to pass under bridges...
Has anyone thought of simply either drilling holes into the mud under the sub or if possible pushing a number of tubes into the mud around the sub and then first shoot some high pressure water through them followed by high pressure air and break the sub loose through cavitation or vibration, breaking the seal of the mud holding the sub currently in place?
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