Dave'n'Kathy's Vagabond Blog: Battleship North Carolina

Hi Blog! On Sunday, January 11, 2015, we continued our exploration of Wilmington, North Carolina with a visit to the USS North Carolina. This is definitely Wilmington's biggest attraction. The massive battleship is moored across the Cape Fear River from downtown. The brochure states that everyone is invited to climb aboard history and have a blast exploring the past.

Don't mind if we do!

We started our visit with a brief video on the history of naval vessels bearing the name North Carolina. We learned all kinds of facts and figures.

There have been five USS North Carolinas, beginning in the early 1800's, and including a nuclear powered submarine presently in service which replaced this battleship after the battleship was decommissioned.

For the techies, wonks and nerds, here are some fun facts about the battleship:

Standard displacement, 1942: 36,600
Full displacement, 1942: 44,800
Length: 729 feet
Beam: 108 feet
Speed: 28 knots
Horsepower, ahead: 121,000
Complement: 144 officers; 2,115 enlisted; 85 marines - TOTAL OF 2,344!
Main battery: nine 16-inch/45 cal
Secondary: twenty 5-inch/38 cal
Antiaircraft: fifteen quad 40mm guns; 20mm single and twin mounts varied from 36 to 53 guns
Built: New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York
Keel laid: October 27, 1937
Commissioned: April 9, 1941
Decommissioned: June 27, 1947
Dedicated as a Memorial: April 29, 1962

The battleship was lucky to be on its shakedown cruise when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. It saw its first action at Guadalcanal in August 1942, and at that time was the largest, most powerful battleship in the U.S. fleet. On September 15, 1942, she was hit by a torpedo and suffered significant damage, but was back in action by early 1943.

She was decommissioned June 27, 1947 and placed in the Inactive Reserve Fleet in Bayonne, New Jersey, for the next 14 years. In 1958 the announcement of her impending scrapping led to a statewide campaign by citizens of North Carolina to save the ship from the scrappers torches and bring her back to her home state. The Save Our Ship (SOS) campaign was successful and, after purchase from the U.S. Navy for only $330,000, the Battleship arrived in her current berth on October 2, 1961. She was dedicated on April 29, 1962 as the State's memorial to its World War II veterans and the 10,000 North Carolinians who died during the war. The ship was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986. We learned all this background by touring the museum before boarding the ship.

Much of the ship has been restored to its World War II condition and is open to tours by the public.

Now it was OUR turn to set sail on the ship herself!

While it was interesting to learn the ship had so many 20mm guns, it was more fun to play with them.

We were surprised to see a plane onboard a battleship. The Kingfisher Scout Plane was used on reconnaissance missions. The plane was fitted out with pontoons so it could land on the water and then taxi up to the ship to be lifted back on the deck by a large crane.

At the time of her commissioning on April 9, 1941, she was considered the world’s greatest sea weapon. She was so impressive she earned the nickname Showboat. During World War II, USS North Carolina participated in every major naval offensive in the Pacific area of operations and earned 15 battle stars. You can see why, with these huge guns:

Here we are going below deck.

The tour of the ship is self-guided so you can go as fast or slow as you want. For those who want lots of detail there are several side loops you can explore that take you down and around the engine room, machine shops, radio rooms and other cool out of the way places. There were plenty of historic photos and stories from the men who served about the ship.

Of course, one of the favorite stops along the tour was the head and the enlisted men's showers (David and Eric didn't know why that would be so interesting):

The Battleship North Carolina employs a museum curator. Many rooms were set up exactly the way it would have looked during World War II. The post office had replica letters in the mail boxes, the canteen had historic boxes of candy and cigarettes. Here is the operating room:

The dive room was also filled with really cool historic equipment.

We spent a lot of time in the gun turret trying to figure out how the sailors could have possibly maneuvered in such a tight space -- all while the massive 16 inch guns were being fired right above them. In fact, many men were stationed INSIDE the gun turret. Below the guns are the storage areas for the shells and the gun powder. We climbed up and down three stories of spiral staircases to get a close up look at the loading system.

Many of the displays were on shipboard life. The mess deck, bakery, chapel, butcher shop, barber shop, laundry and berthing area. Here is what a typical officers quarters would have looked like.

Flat Stanleys are used in key positions to give visitors a sense of how many men worked in a particular area. Here several Stanleys are working in the radio room.

Fun fact: the ship carried 2 million gallons of fuel oil and averaged 166 gallons per mile. That's only 32 feet per gallon! We will never complain about Great White's mileage again.

We can only hope we look this good when were are almost 80 years old:

The National Park Service set up a small theater onboard. They show a 3D movie on the USS Arizona and other World War II underwater dive sites. Here Ginny, Kathy and Dave get their 3D on.

Back out on the deck, Kathy does her best "I'm king of the world" impression off the bow in the shadow of a most unusual jack -- or maritime flag. The blue field, white-starred jack is referred to as the Union Jack, not to be confused with the British Union Jack. The jack of the United States of America is a maritime flag representing United States nationality flown on the jackstaff in the bow of American vessels that are moored or anchored.