U.S.S. Ling Runs Silent in Hackensack - Hackensack, NJ
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 40° 52.820 W 074° 02.402
18T E 580881 N 4525916
The U.S.S. Ling is located at 78 River St. at the New Jersey Naval Museum in Hackensack, NJ.
Waymark Code: WMVZWH
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 06/18/2017
Views: 3
The Weird New Jersey website (
visit link) informs us:
"U.S.S. Ling Runs Silent in Hackensack
t’s sad and hopeless looking sight to see – a U.S. Naval submarine mired in the muck of a river not deep enough to allow for its draft when the ship is on the surface. Submersion would be totally out of the question. The vessel is the USS Ling, a 312-foot long, 2,500-ton veteran of World War II, which now rests on the silty bottom of Hackensack River in Hackensack. Until a just a few years ago the Ling was the centerpiece exhibit of the NJ Naval Museum, which was located on the property adjacent to the ship’s berth. But the submarine was closed to the public after the walkway leading to it from shore was swept away by Superstorm Sandy in 2012, leaving no access to the foundered ship. The museum subsequently closed in 2015. Today the shoreline to starboard side of the ship is overgrown with weeds, vines and sumac trees, and the submarine and museum are in need of new home. Flotsam washed from the river, beer bottles and illegally dumped garbage litter the muddy riverbank along side the forlorn ship. With not even enough water beneath it to keep her afloat, the sub lists to one side with the slope of the bank, exposing gaping holes rusted through her hull at the bow and stern. To its port side a narrow channel in the river leads no more than a few yards downstream before it flows beneath a seemingly impenetrable boundary to navigation; a low draw bridge which seldom if ever opens anymore. Stranded in muck, imprisoned by steel barriers, and rusting away; it is indeed a sorry fate that has befallen the once swift and proud Naval warship.
The Venerable Old 297
The USS Ling (SS -297) is a Balao-class submarine of the United States Navy, named for the ling fish, which was first laid down in November of 1942 by the Cramp Shipbuilding Company of Philadelphia. She was launched August 1943, and was moved to the Boston Navy Yard for completion and testing. Ling was commissioned on 8 June 1945. She headed out to sea to test her equipment in September of 1945. After the WWII ended later that year the Ling sailed to the Panama Canal Zone where she operated until March 1946. She then sailed to New London, Connecticut, where she was decommissioned in October 1946, and entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.
In March 1960, the Ling was towed to Brooklyn, New York, where she was converted into a training ship at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, simulating all aspects of submarine operations. She was reclassified a Miscellaneous Unclassified Submarine, and struck from the Naval Register, in December 1971."