Visiting the USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial in Wilmington, North Carolina

Today Dave, Kathy, Eric & I
are visiting the USS
Carolina Battleship Memorial.







The USS North Carolina BB 55 is the fourth US Naval ship named North Carolina.   The Confederacy had the CSS North Carolina Ironclad built for service in the Civil War.  Currently, the Virginia Class submarine, North Carolina SSN 777 is in service.

The USS North Carolina

 BB 55

Anchors away!

Launched on June 13, 1940, the USS North Carolina BB 55 is over 728 feet long, over 108 feet wide, with a crew of 2,239 officers and enlisted men.  The ship saw action during World War II and was decommissioned on June 27, 1947.  It was scheduled to be sold for scrap in 1960.  Citizens of North Carolina brought the ship back to North Carolina to preserve it as a memorial.  The ship opened in 1961.  It honors the 10,000 North Carolinians who gave their lives in service during World War II

The Conning Tower

The USS North Carolina's war
record is on display here:

1 Japanese Troop Ship sunk
24 Japanese War Planes
shot down

Eric & Kathy "fire" the 20 mm/70 
caliber anti aircraft guns.

Eric & Dave pose with the

Ship's bell.

I'm standing in front of a
Vought OS2U-3 Kingfisher
scout & observation plane.






We venture blow decks and follow the arrows....

Sailor Flat Stanley shows

visitors the way...

This is just one of several Kitchens
on the USS North Carolina.

This ship is 728 ft long x 108 ft
wide with over 2,000 men
board...  There better be more
than one Kitchen!

Just some of the seats in the

Enlisted Men's Mess.

We climb up & down steep
stairways as we go from
deck to deck.

The Reduction Gear is like

 the ship's transmission.

It reduces the speed of the

ship's propellers.

We passed a lot of panels
filled with dials & switches.

There's a lot of systems on this ship: propulsion, air-search,  surface search radar & gun control radar; firing systems etc.   

A turbine built by

General Electric.

One of the very large
machines in the Laundry
area.

When the hatches create

water tight seals, when

closed.

Since Eric and I retired in September 2012, we've visited the USS Yorktown, USS Alabama and US Laffey.  The USS North Carolina has more sections of the ship open for visitors to tour.  ***Interesting Factoid: A museum curator with no experience with the Navy or Naval ships wad hired to create displays for the memorial.  I think she did an outstanding job of making showing what life on the USS North Carolina was like for the crew.

We come across the Bindery.

A lot of manuals were printed
on the ship, along with
the ship's newspaper.

Kathy checks out one of

the bunks on board.

Sets of bunks are found all

over the ship, in all areas.

Kathy is about 5 foot 7 inches tall.  She takes up the full length of the bunk.  I imagine that shorter sailors were selected for life aboard battleships.  Being tall was not an advantage here. 

The Bathroom

With no privacy, sailors
get over shyness quickly.

The Machine Shop repaired &

fabricated new parts on demand.

On a ship this size, with all the

systems on board, the machinists

were kept busy.

Shells are stored, waiting to be

put on racks & sent on deck

to be fired.

Shells are propelled by powder bags,

 placed exactly as directed for

correct firing.

The deck, as seen from
a port hole.

.

We climbed up to the the Bridge.

This is the navigation &

Captain's Command Center

when the ship is under way.

I look out between gun
turrets at the skyline
of Wilmington.

We've been on board the USS North Carolina for more than two hours.  Eric got a recommendation for a restaurant for lunch.  It's time to head to Wilmington's Riverfront
to fuel up and explore.