Today, Northeast PSD staff divers put their surface-supplied diving skills and gear to use helping on the ‘Save the USS Ling’ project. This project has been underway for quite some time and has the ultimate goal of re-floating the WWII-era submarine, USS Ling, from her current home stuck in the mud of the Hackensack River.
Once she is afloat, the sub will be moved from her current location and ultimately relocated to the Louisville Naval Museum, where she will be a historic exhibit.
The project is the work of a group of military veterans and volunteers from multiple states, all with the goal of rescuing the Ling from her currently abandoned predicament and preventing her from falling into further disrepair.
At this point in the project, the Ling needed to be inspected below the waterline, a large tree removed from under the bow, and some more silt removed from ballast tanks.
So when the restoration group reached out to us, we were more than happy to donate our time and skill to help out.
Northeast PSD Staff go Surface-Supplied Diving
Using our surface-supplied diving gear, staff divers spent a total of four hours below the surface.
The first hour was spent by NePSD founder & head instructor Tim Andro, who is also a certified Hull Inspection diver, painstakingly inspecting the entire starboard side of the ship inch by inch. During his dive, several cracks were located and marked for future inspection or repair.
The large tree was also rigged up and hoisted out from under the ship by topside.
After a rest period, Tim re-entered the water and spent more than an hour removing a large amount of silt from the ballast tanks.
Since Tim wasn’t the only staff diver who wanted to get wet, Tim came up and switched out with Andrew Ludwig who returned to the ballast tank and continued the silt removal work.
All told, NePSD staff spent approximately four hours working subsurface on surface-supply and hardhat. Topside tending and diver safety fell under the careful watch of staff members John Bota and James Finnernan, with assistance from some other volunteers.
It was a great day overall, and the Ling volunteers sincerely appreciated the assistance.
