Letters
Your comments in the last issue’s Deck Log (“Saving Our History While We Still Can”) and appeal for millionaires and billionaires to come forward is directly on target and timely. If anyone doubts that, read up on the case of the submarine USS Ling in Hackensack, New Jersey, near my home. Multiple news stories from last year are available online through a simple Google search. This once proud vessel was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. After the sub was decommissioned, it became part of the New Jersey Naval Museum in Hackensack. Today it is a rusting hulk, sunken into the river mud with no hope of salvation. When it came to pass that the sub had to be moved because the riverside site was being sold, the money to even maintain the boat where it was, let alone move it, had long before run out. When the gangway was destroyed in 2012 during Hurricane Sandy, the museum closed altogether. The Navy took back its artifacts, and the submarine was left closed, abandoned, and unsupervised with no security. In August 2018, vandals boarded the boat and opened the hatches, flooding the sub. The sub will have to be
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photo by bob leafe
Lessons from Notre Dame Fire I, too, watched in horror as the Cathedral of Notre Dame burned. I sent a small contribution toward its restoration, as well as a contribution to restore the churches that were set afire by vandals in our own South. I lived in Philadelphia for many years, and often drove by the ocean liner SS United States. What a magnificent vessel, sitting and rusting away. I also follow the saga of the Falls of Clyde on Facebook, and have made donations to that effort as well. But I know that my modest contributions are almost meaningless to these efforts. I hope that those who do have the resources to make a difference will step up to save these, and other, historic vessels. Nearer to home, I am a proud supporter of the Pride of Baltimore II, our own tall ship. Fair sailing to her on this summer’s voyage to and around the Great Lakes as part of the Tall Ships Challenge race series. I love Sea History magazine, and do try to support it in a meaningful way. Keep up the good work! Randy Nichols Baltimore, Maryland
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USS Ling in the Hackensack River, October 2018, after vandals flooded the sub. either dismantled in place or left to disintegrate into the river. While this is largely a local tragedy (there are other WWII subs left), one can easily imagine such a scenario involving the Olympia or other vunerable museum ships, while we wait hoping for some future funding to restore and secure them. I give what I can as a member of many different nautical and museum ship societies, but I’m one person living on a pension. If I was a millionaire, plenty of my money would go to the ships. Please, everyone who has been blessed with the means, step forward and help! At some point, it WILL be too late! Pete Partridge Hawthorne, New Jersey If there is any silver lining to the damage to Notre Dame from the devastating fire last April, it is that repairing it will not only
restore the structure but the effort will restore the stone-carving skills to a new generation of artisans. I heard a report on NPR recently that visited a high school in Paris (Lycée Professionnel Hector Guimard) that turns out professionally licensed stonemasons, with specialty training in stone carving for historic monuments. The school wasn’t started just to rebuild Norte Dame. It was founded just after World War II to restore many of France’s monuments that were damaged in the war. The damage to Notre Dame just made it more newsworthy. Likewise, I know that saving historic ships requires training new generations in traditional boatbuilding, rigging, sailmaking, and sail handling, not just in saving the physical structures. Is this happening in the maritime heritage community? Jim Swales Spartanburg, South Carolina
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