Dive team goes back into Hackensack River in search of 1812 cannon stolen in 1980
The search for "Old Bergen" — the 1812 cannon that was stolen in May 1980 from in front of the Steuben House in River Edge — continues.
Volunteer divers went into the Hackensack River on a cold Saturday morning in search of the historic cannon.
They did not find it, but they heard a metal "ting" sound during the search that will bring them back for yet another look in the future.
In August, during the first foray into the Hackensack River by the team, the divers cleared out areas of interest to make it easier to explore on their next trip.
Saturday morning's search was more promising than the summer dive, some of it due to the colder temperature.
Divers went deeper into the river, and when they poked around with a probe, they heard a sound that resembled that of metal. Timothy Andro, head certifying instructor of Northeast Public Safety Divers, instructed other divers to secure the underwater probe as a focal point for their next search.
The team began the day at 8 a.m. as temperatures hovered in the low 30s. The divers reached depths of about 30 feet in the search, which went on for several hours. They said the water was dark and cold, and "you can't see nothing."
The team consisted of divers from Northeast Public Safety Divers, Mahwah Rescue, the North Jersey Scuba Task Force and the Wallington Diving Team.
The summer's warm weather caused the river water to be cloudy during the first dive, said Deborah Powell, a former president of the Bergen County Historical Society and chair of the Historic New Bridge Landing Park Commission. The divers at that time said they would return once the weather cooled.
There are many thoughts and theories about what happened to the cannon, which had stood watch over the Hackensack River for four decades. Some believe it did not go far.
One popular theory is that a few men who may have had too much to drink picked it up and carried it across the street from the Steuben House to the footbridge that crosses the Hackensack River and dumped it into the water.
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"It was dropped over the bridge, right in front," Bradley Luberto, a county resident, has been telling the Bergen County Historical Society, which owned the 6-pounder cannon (named for the 6-pound projectiles it fires), possibly used during the Revolutionary War.
Not so, says Andro, of Northeast Public Safety Divers.
"There's no damage to the metal on the bridge," he said. "There's no possible way to throw the cannon without damage."
Reginald McMahon, a late member of the society, had researched and written about the cannon before his death.
"On the night of May 9, 1980, 'Old Bergen' disappeared," he wrote. "Thieves, obviously strong-armed, lifted the hundreds of pounds of iron from its mount and its fate remains a mystery."
Anyone with information on the cannon is asked to contact the Bergen County Historical Society and leave a message on the answering machine at 201-343-9492 or email info@bergencountyhistory.org.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Divers again search Hackensack River for 1812 cannon stolen in 1980
