USS Ling (SS/AGSS/IXSS-297)Balao-class submarine

[Dirkpitt289]

Last weekend I took my son and his friend to visit a WWII sub that is local to me. The Sub is the USS Ling which is a Balto Class sub. To save space and time just do a Google search and look at the bio on Wikipedia.

The thing I wanted to add is that this sub might not be around much longer. You see the museum rents the property for one dollar and the owners have decided they now want to develop the property. The museum gets no funding from anyone except its visitors so the cost of moving this piece of history would be very high. First they would need to dredge a path out from where she is. And the other problem is the bridge (Seen from the bow shot) no longer opens. If a new home and a way to move her aren't found soon she could end up being scraped where she sits.

It would be a shame to loose his piece of history. Any way here are my pictures. I hope to follow this up with photos of a Kaiten they also have on display.

Enjoy

Dirk

Looking forward


Ammo feed for the Bow Gun

[Dirkpitt289]

[Dirkpitt289]

The guns on the conning tower were called "dry" guns and were removed prior to diving. The main forward and aft deck guns were called "wet" guns because they were non removable.

[Dirkpitt289]

Stern Deck Plating


The Deck gun still works (moves, not fires)

[Dirkpitt289]

Forward Torpedo Room. Note the Tube creeper. How would you like to be the guy that has to get on that and go into the tubes? Each tube is 22 feet long. If memor serves me right the Ling carried 16 fish.


This is the Sonar station located in the rear of the froward Torpedo room. The long silver pole is just one of the sonar ears


This is the Captain's Head located in the rear of the Forward Torpedo room across from the Sonar station

[Dirkpitt289]

This hallway houses the Officers quarters


The Captain's quarters


Ward Room

[Dirkpitt289]

The following photos are of the control room

Dive Plane Controls


Christmas Tree and Flood controls


Steering Control

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Looking up from the Control Room to the Bridge and periscope


Ballast Controls

[Dirkpitt289]

Because of the amount of people in the Galley I was unable to get any photos. At the time there was 12 of us in the Galley and half were children and it seemed cramped. When the Ling was in active service the Galley would hold up to 24 sailors at one time.

Next we continue aft to the crew quarters. This boat had a crew of 85 men and each had is own bunk. These photos do not do justice to what it was like to be on this sub.

[Dirkpitt289]

Next we continue aft to the Engine room.

This is just one of four on this boat. According to our guide these were/ are such reliable engines that they still use them today on our nuclear subs as emergency engines. They look like huge coffins


Engine with the top opened


Looking down into the Cylinder head

[Dirkpitt289]

These are the Engine gauges


This is the engine control station. If you look you can see the telegraph where they receive the speed orders from the control room. They can also switch to battery power from here.

[Dirkpitt289]

Lastly we go to the aft Torpedo room


Here is the control end of a (Steam Power)torpedo.




Specs on the Torpedo

[Dirkpitt289]

This is the forward escape hatch in the Torpedo room. In an emergency if the sub was no deeper then 100 feet, 7 men would climb in here at one time with their breathing lung. Flood the tube and swim to the surface. To the best of our guides knowledge this was used once in history. And of the 10 men that used it 8 died of the bends.

From where I stood it would be tough to get 4 men in there let alone 7. I guess humans were smaller in the 40's.


Emergency lights




Well I hope you guys enjoyed the tour as much as we did. Here is the link to the museum for anyone interested.
http://www.njnm.com/

[Devin]

Great photos. Thanks for posting. People keep telling me that I need to visit Ling. I believe I'll make the drive up this summer, since I'm very close by.

[Dirkpitt289]

Yeah, its a small rinky dink of a place but well worth the trip if you like subs. They have an exibit in the museum that lists every boat and crew member still on patrol. The cost is ony $7. and you can have kids parties and sleep overs if you want.

[MartinJQuinn]

I've never actually been on board, but she looks much, much better than the last time I swung by (she was closed the one time I attempted to go see her).

[les]

Great photos. Send them to Sean and have them put in the walk around section.

[Dirkpitt289]

Great photos. Send them to Sean and have them put in the walk around section.

I tried but there were 2 issues.

1) I have too many photos and to be honest the 38 I posted just doesn't do this visit justice.
2) I had a problem uploading the photos. If Sean wishes to move these that's fine with me.