Hackensack submarine USS Ling apparently flooded intentionally, memorial plaques stolen

Show Caption Hide Caption USS Ling flooded after vandals open hatches USS Ling flood after vandals open hatches and four bronze plaques stolen from memorial for thousands of lives lost in World War II.

Vandals climbed aboard the USS Ling, a World War II-era submarine, and set to work.

Armed with tools to cut through locks, they worked to open hatches on the 312-foot long, 2,500-ton behemoth, letting gallons of Hackensack River water rush into the vessel. These vandals knew the inner workings of the historic ship, it seems, even opening hatches to the bilges, the lowest compartments of the submarine.

"Locks were cut," said Les Altschuler, vice president of the Submarine Memorial Association, which is responsible for maintaining the vessel. "Somebody had to know what they were doing to flood the submarine. We didn’t have enough rain to flood the boat — somebody opened the hatches."

Sometime between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, the Ling was flooded with several feet of water, Altschuler said. And four bronze plaques, dedicated to the 52 United States submarines lost during World War II and the sailors who helmed them, were also wrenched from the ground and stolen, he said.

"They desecrated the memorial," Altschuler said.

The plaques were valued at more than $10,000, Hackensack police said in a statement.

The Ling is the featured exhibit of the New Jersey Naval Museum, which occupies a trailer on land that was once the headquarters of North Jersey Media Group, which published The Record before the newspaper and NorthJersey.com were sold to Gannett's USA Today Network. The museum, which was closed in 2012 after flood waters from Superstorm Sandy washed out the gangplank to the Ling, has been housed on that parcel since 1974, when the Borg family, which owned the newspaper, negotiated a deal to lease land to the museum for $1 a year.

Earlier this summer, Macromedia Inc., which owns the 20-acre parcel of land, announced that it would be demolishing the neighboring building that was once The Record's offices to make way for a 600-unit luxury residential community, an outdoor public plaza and a river walk.

“This was a despicable act, and we hope law enforcement makes arrests and punishes the perpetrators to the fullest extent allowed,” said Bob Sommer, a spokesman for Macromedia.

Macromedia evicted the museum from the site, and Tuesday was the negotiated deadline for officials to clear their property from a small trailer off the site. The submarine is not part of the redevelopment project, and its removal, which has been estimated to cost millions, is not part of the eviction, a representative for Macromedia has said.

Gilbert De Laat, the museum's president, drove to the River Street lot from his summer home on Tuesday to assess the Ling's damage.

“Everyone has to recognize that this isn’t just about a World War II submarine or the plaques on a memorial,” De Laat said. “It’s about preserving history and the recognition of lives lost — and that’s the part that gets lost in translation. It’s no different than ruining a grave marker.”

On Tuesday, museum trustees cleaned out what little they could salvage. A sign with the silhouette of the submarine was mounted on the back of a pickup truck. The phone number for the museum and the word “tours” were crossed out in paint.

The Ling is seemingly unmovable because it is stuck in several feet of mud, riddled with rust holes and in an area of the river too shallow to float the vessel.

The Ling did not sink, Altschuler said, but the interior, which he says still housed artifacts from the days when the submarine was open for tours, has been inundated.

Authorities were investigating the scene and gathering evidence, De Laat said. Museum officials in coming days will be reaching out to their insurance carrier to talk about next steps.

“It’s premature to make any assessments on who might be responsible,” De Laat said.

Local veterans have tried to raise necessary funds to relocate or preserve the vessel. A GoFundMe page has collected nearly $20,000 in 14 months to help restore the Ling — far from its goal of raising $100,000.

“It adds an additional burden of time and resources that this group so desperately needs,” De Laat said. “It’s unfortunate that someone took this fragile situation and made it worse.”

Just as it was two years ago, even as the museum is pushed out, the Ling is seemingly not going anywhere, he said.

"It's still in the river," Altschuler said.

Email: torrejon@northjersey.com, anzidei@northjersey.com