Two fathers and their sons were on the road for 16 hours from Indiana to New Jersey before arriving in Hackensack on Saturday morning to reach their ultimate destination: the USS Ling.

Lewis Palmer, his son Robert, and Mark Gatton and his son Nick, were among a small group of submarine enthusiasts who came to check out the condition of the World War II-era submarine docked in the Hackensack River behind the former headquarters for The Record for decades.

Their visit is part of a monumental task that would take an entire fleet to carry out: pulling the 312-foot, 2,500-ton maritime vessel out of its current location and bringing it all the way to Louisville, Kentucky.

There, it would be the centerpiece of the newly formed Louisville Naval Museum, which would be based in the Ohio River or on land in the downtown area at the site of a now-defunct barge-building company.

"Hopefully, we can get it out of here, but we're here to get that done," Palmer said. "This is a kind of fact-finding mission."

The USS Ling was once the featured exhibit of the New Jersey Naval Museum, which since 1972 was housed in a trailer on a parcel of land owned by the Borg family, The Record's owner until 2016.

More:The Record's former headquarters in Hackensack to become luxury apartments, retail

More:Charges upgraded for five suspects in USS Ling vandalism

However, the USS Ling and the museum have both seen better days.

Both were closed in 2012 after floodwaters from Superstorm Sandy damaged the gangplank to the submarine and the museum. Last year, vandals cut locks and opened hatches that led to the submarine being flooded with Hackensack River water.

After reading stories about the USS Ling being vandalized, Palmer, who resides two hours north of Louisville, said he got together with some other individuals to "save the submarine and see if we can give it a good home."

He said getting it to Louisville would require getting it towed to New York, where it would be restored to continue the trip down the Atlantic Seaboard to Florida. Then it would make its way to the Gulf of Mexico, stationing in New Orleans, where it would be pulled up the Mississippi River and then east on the Ohio River.

He estimates it would cost at least $10 million for the project, although he said he has commitments from various donors who would back much of it.

The reconnaissance on the submarine itself was just as much an undertaking as potentially hauling the massive water craft thousands of miles away.

Several members of the group, which also included David Laney, a volunteer fireman from Pennsylvania, and Seth Weiner, who came from upstate New York and is a former curator for the New Jersey Naval Museum, first worked at getting onto the submarine.

That required mowing the overgrown grass, done by Matthew Benedykcinski, a former petty officer second class with the Navy and another founder of the Louisville Naval Museum, on the land near the sub. Doing that allowed for a flatbed truck to tow the gangplank hidden behind some bushes to the wooden dock, unsteady in some spots, to eventually connect it to the ship.

When several attempts at that failed, group members then found a South Hackensack Fire Department boat, obscured by tall grass near the riverbank, and transported equipment and themselves to the sub.

Once they got onto the USS Ling, they checked different sections of the submarine to see how badly it has flooded, its stability and if conditions are feasible for people to do any further exploration.

After about five hours, which included stoppage twice by police and fire officials questioning Palmer and other members about their activities, and by an individual identified as Gilbert De Laat, president of the Submarine Memorial Association, which once ran the museum, the group wrapped for the day.

Palmer and others who made it onto the submarine deck observed that the water coming from inside the sub was "filthy and smelly with debris floating in the water," and tried to discern where there were leaks, but access could not be gained into the submarine. They also hoisted a new American flag that had not been there for some time.

Palmer said they would come back later in the day to explore the Hackensack River with members of the Sea Scouts Ranger 39, a program of the Boy Scouts, based in Englewood, to explore if the river is passable.

He hopes that people will understand why he and his group are embarking on this task.

"Some people are concerned with bringing her out of New Jersey, that we are taking her away from New Jersey. We're not out to do that," Palmer said. "We're just out to save it. If it happens here in New Jersey, I will get behind it. But for now, it's Louisville."

Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com

More Local news

More:Dover High School student struck crossing Route 46

More:Man shot in Paterson dies in Rochelle Park, source says

More:Bergen County sheriff's officer charged with providing contraband to inmate