Repairs on the USS Ling have the potential of floating WWII sub in Hackensack River

A model of a Balao-class World War II submarine shows how much of the USS Ling isn't visible, below. The Ling -- damaged by Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and flooded through a rust hole -- is now stuck in the mud and muck of the Hackensack River. 

A group of submarine enthusiasts, some of whom are affiliated with a proposed naval museum on the Ohio River in Louisville, Ky., have enlisted active-duty sailors and corporate support to repair the Ling and eventually tow it out of New Jersey.

Sailors from Groton naval base

join volunteer effort to save boat

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Volunteers and active-duty sailors have breathed new life into the USS Ling, a storm-damaged and flooded World War II submarine that needs a new home.

The biggest accomplishment since a rescue effort was launched in mid-September are repairs to the ballast tanks, and a low-pressure ballast blow that expelled all of the mud inside the sub, which is stuck in the muck of the Hackensack River.

This landlubber's understanding is that a submarine's ballast tanks are flooded when the crew wants to dive, and then air expels the water, bringing the boat to the surface.

"She didn't float," said Lewis Palmer, a spokesman for the volunteers and a founding member of a proposed Louisville Naval Museum, a non-profit in Kentucky, where the Ling would be towed when seaworthy.

"She's still pretty much stuck in the mud," he said in a telephone interview.

But Palmer believes repairs to the ballast tanks eventually will allow the Ling to be floated and towed down the Hackensack River.

Submariners pitch in

Sailors from Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Conn., also repaired a 3-inch rust hole that allowed river water to flood the Ling, Palmer said.

The hole, repaired at low tide, was located "under the signal-flare ejector tube" on the port or left side in the aft or rear section of the Ling, he said. 

Palmer estimated that 14 sailors put in a total of 100 hours working on the boat with the permission of the property owner, Stephen A. Borg, former publisher of The Record.

Palmer praised Borg's cooperation, noting the newspaper publisher-turned-apartment developer was happy to hear about the volunteer effort to move the Ling, and always gave access to the fenced and locked site off of River Street when asked.

Other support

The sailors also were able to borrow a compressor to test the sub's ballast tanks from the Eastern Concrete Materials plant in Bogota, just across the river.

The save the Ling effort also received donations of Purple Power cleaner/degreaser and Blaster lubricant from the manufacturers.

And, Palmer said, American Commercial Barge Line in Jeffersonville, Ind., which is near the proposed naval museum in Louisville, has offered to tow the Ling about halfway there, a job that would normally cost $5 million.

The Ling, which is just under 312 feet long, was one of the U.S. Navy's Balao-class submarines built during World War II, and with 120 completed, it was the most successful.

Palmer, 50, an Army veteran who lives in Indiana, traces his love of  submarines to the lore he heard from his grandfather, who served on three Balao-class submarines, but not the Ling.

Lewis Palmer, a founding member of the proposed Louisville Naval Museum on the Ohio River, discussing plans for the USS Ling with a reporter on Sept. 14.

Submarine Memorial Association

You can find a history of the USS Ling on Weird N.J. or Wikipedia.

The Ling was donated to the Submarine Memorial Association and moved to 78 River St. in Hackensack -- Borg Park -- in January 1973, when restoration work "to near mint condition" began, according to Weird N.J.

The gangplank that allowed the public to visit the sub was swept away during Superstorm Sandy in 2012, and the New Jersey Naval Museum closed a few years later.

Palmer, spokesman for the volunteer group preparing the Ling for the move to Kentucky, said the head of the Submarine Memorial Association won't talk to him, and that is hindering interior work.

Read an earlier post about the USS Ling:

Group hopes final voyage will be to Kentucky

The Record's old address markers serving as tombstones for great local journalism

DOOMED: One of the two address markers left after The Record's old headquarters at 150 River Street in Hackensack were leveled for the construction of apartments. The brick markers resemble tombstones over the spot where great local daily newspaper journalism died. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- There are only a few signs left that a great local daily newspaper was published for many decades at 150 River St.

Then-Publisher Stephen Borg of Tenafly moved The Record's headquarters to Woodland Park in 2009 after the biggest newsroom downsizing in the history of the daily, founded in 1895 and owned by the Borg family since 1930.

In July 2016, the Borg family sold out for nearly $40 million in cash to the Gannett Co., the biggest newspaper publisher in the United States, but retained ownership of nearly 20 acres along River Street.

Today, there are few remnants of the large, 3- and 4-story red-brick building where the presses roared nightly to publish a daily newspaper that once brought coverage of town council and school board meetings to readers the very next day.

In the 1980s, The Record of Hackensack was known for strong coverage of the environment, and for a daily, in-depth look on Page 1 at an issue in the news known as "the patch."

This week, all that is recognizable at the site are two brick address markers with the number "150" on them, and a bus-like shelter reporters and editors were told to use after smoking was banned in the newsroom.

Read: First, the Borgs screwed Hackensack ...

More sports than news

One look at a copy of The Record of Woodland Park shows how far the once-great daily has fallen after Gannett:

Laid off more than 350 employees of North Jersey Media Group, reduced the number of local news pages, eliminated a daily editorial, and generally gutted a paper many still refer to as "The Bergen Record."

This poorly edited Gannett rag devoted 8 full pages to sports in Wednesday's edition compared to only 3 pages of local news, most of it from Passaic County and far from the heart of the Bergen County circulation area.

Christie apologist

On Wednesday's Page 1, I found another boring political column by Charles Stile, a burned-out Trenton reporter who served as chief apologist for Chris Christie, a GOP thug who was the worst governor in New Jersey history.

Stile enjoys taking potshots at Governor Murphy.

This despite Murphy having to spend most of his time repairing the damage Christie did to mass transit, the environment, medical care, state workers pensions and so much more during the 8 long years of his reign. 

The lead story on the Business page is plans by Krispy Kreme to open its flagship store in Manhattan's Times Square.

A photo with the story shows a New York City police officer eating a donut. What an overused stereotype.

Breaking news

In Wednesday's Better Living section, Food Editor Esther Davidowitz bemoaned the closing of the Pig and Prince restaurant in trendy Montclair, which isn't even in The Record's circulation area.

Read: The Record's ghosts

 will be buried under new housing

DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT: The apartment site where The Record headquarters building once stood is considered part of the ambitious downtown rehabilitation zone in Hackensack. The Record has never reported the identity of the property owners who pushed for redevelopment and have been enriched by it.

SMOKING BAN: After smoking was banned in the 4th-floor newsroom, a bus shelter for smokers, center, was set up near a rear entrance to the building.

MAIN AND MERCER: A crane looms over the site of a 14-story apartment building under construction at Main and Mercer streets, about a block from The Record site.

RAISING THE SITE: The city Planning Board approved apartment construction as long as the Borg family and their development partners raise the site by 3 feet. They will be building in a flood zone.

USS LING: The Borgs have washed their hands of the USS Ling, a World War II submarine stuck in the mud of the Hackensack River. Only the periscopes are visible behind a towering heap of sand. The sub once was part of a naval museum.

THE WAY THEY WERE: Here are photos of The Record's old headquarters building and the USS Ling from Sept. 2, 2018, above and below. For many years, the Borgs monetized the parking lot by leasing spaces to Bergen County and to Hackensack University Medical Center, where lawyer Jennifer Borg once was a board member.

As Trump destroys our democracy, Page 1 buzzes with bees, sports, truckers in L.A.

STUCK IN HACKENSACK: A tour bus blocked two lanes of River Street today after the back of the vehicle got hung up as it was leaving the parking lot of the shuttered New Jersey Naval Museum and USS Ling, a World War II submarine that is itself stuck in the muck of the Hackensack River.

ABANDONED PLACES: A couple who got off the bus said they were on a tour of "abandoned places," including the submarine. They said the old headquarters of The Record, which the Borg family abandoned in 2009, wasn't part of the tour.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

The Russian election-meddling investigation continues to expand -- even as President Trump calls the actions of his own Justice Department "phony" and "sad."

The Liar-In-Chief also accused Deputy Attorney General Ron Rosenstein of leading a "witch hunt."

Given the non-stop madness, mayhem and alternative facts that have marked the Trump administration since Jan. 20, can a once-respected newspaper like The Record of Woodland Park continue to fill Page 1 with fluff?

Father's Day feature

Today's front page is an emphatic "yes."

There are three major elements, plus a photo referring readers to a heart-warming Father's Day feature about father-son and father-daughter restaurant teams (1A and 1BL).

As our nation's capital burns, Editor Richard A. Green buzzes about the unusually high mortality rate of honeybees in the Garden State.

The Record has never reported in any comprehensive way on heart disease, the nation's No. 1 killer, or the obesity epidemic.

Instead, Green and other editors prefer medical miracles or, as in the case of today's Page 1 sports column, a medical freak -- a retired coach with "idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis," an incurable disease.

Inexplicably, the third major story on Page 1 today focuses on a truck driver in the port of Los Angeles who takes home "as little as 67 cents a week," according to a USA Today investigation.

A story reporting Trump's tax-overhaul plan "is on life support" appears on Page 4A.

'National nightmare'

Way back on the Opinion section front, Columnist Mike Kelly says, "The national nightmare has struck the national pastime," an awkward reference to last week's shooting of a GOP congressman on a baseball practice field.

Why didn't Green -- who laid off more than 350 employees but spared Kelly and other veteran columnists -- run this gun-control column on Page 1?

Just the day before, Kelly's column demonizing Cuba for giving asylum to the killer of a New Jersey state trooper ran at the top of Page 1.

ON BORG-OWNED PROPERTY? When the Borg family of Englewood, Tenafly, Manhattan and the Hamptons sold North Jersey Media Group to Gannett Co. for more than $40 million last July, they retained nearly 20 acres along River Street in Hackensack to develop into apartments. The Borgs dispute the USS Ling is on their property, and a $1-year-lease was terminated in May 2016 by then-Record Publisher Stephen A Borg. The family claims the sub is stuck in the river, which they don't own.

TAKING A BREAK: Members of the tour group purchased food at the New Heritage Diner, and took shelter under a tree as they awaited the arrival of a heavy duty tow truck to free the bus.

Grocery 'earthquake'?

This morning, I braved the parking-lot puddles and potholes to go shopping for fresh fish, fruit, rice and other items at the H Mart in Little Ferry.

But I didn't see any signs of the "earthquake rattling through the grocery sector" predicted by an analyst in The Record on Saturday.

In a front-page story, the paper's retailing reporter claimed "traditional supermarkets" have a big reason to worry now that Amazon is expected to merge with Whole Foods Market, the dominant player in organic and natural food.

At the Korean supermarket, some of the prices were so low I can't imagine how Whole Foods or Amazon's online grocery service could possibly match them.

A 15-pound bag of Kokuho Yellow Label California-grown white rice was only $6.99, whole fresh wild-caught porgy were $1.99 a pound, and five bunches of scallions were 99 cents.

I munched my way around the store with free samples of fish cake, tofu, noodles, broiled fresh cod, fried mussels, sliced boiled octopus and other Korean food.

Try that at Whole Foods.

Do we need a bunch of big new supermarkets?

A virus is killing farmed tilapia

A box of 14 to 16 achingly sweet Ataulfo or Champagne Mangoes was $9.99 today at H Mart, 260 Bergen Turnpike, Little Ferry.