U.S.S. North Carolina

Today we drove 70 miles north to Wilmington NC to visit the USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial. The 728 foot keel was laid in 1937 and the North Carolina was commissioned in April of 1941. She displaced 36,600 tons and carried a crew of 2300. She served four years in the Pacific from 1941 to 1945 and took part in every major offensive in the Pacific during WWII. In the Battle of the Eastern Solomon’s Islands in August of 1942, the Battleship’s anti-aircraft barrage helped save the carrier ENTERPRISE, thereby establishing the primary role of the fast battleship as protector of aircraft carriers. One of her Kingfisher pilots performed heroically during the strike on Truk when he rescued ten downed Navy aviators on 30 April 1944. In all, NORTH CAROLINA carried out nine shore bombardments, sank an enemy troopship, destroyed at least 24 enemy aircraft, and assisted in shooting down many more. Her anti-aircraft guns helped to halt or frustrate scores of attacks on aircraft carriers. She steamed over 300,000 miles. Although Japanese radio announcements claimed six times that NORTH CAROLINA had been sunk, she survived many close calls and near misses - such as the Japanese torpedo which slammed into the Battleship’s hull on 15 September 1942. A quick response on the part of the crew allowed the mighty Ship to keep up with the fleet. By war’s end, the Ship lost ten men in action and had 67 wounded.


The tour was self guided and would require about 3 hours to complete. It started on the fantail and wound its way forward through four decks. Unfortunately the cramped quarters did not lend itself to taking many pictures, even with a 35mm wideangle lens. Crawling into the firing station of the 16" gun turret required the agility of a much younger and smaller person than me, although I did eventually make it. Getting out was more labour intensive than getting in and parts had to be negotiated on hands and knees. For those who might one day make the trip and not want to hazard getting stuck on the way in or out...here is what it looks like inside. This small area would house four men during operations. In total it may measure 15ft x 6ft with barely 6ft headroom. One cannot start to comprehend the noise of those 16" guns when you are sitting just feet from the breach. The complete shell, charge and upper and lower projectiles stood a whopping 54" tall by 16" diameter. (Click anywhere on the picture to enlarge.) The one area of extreme interest that was not accessible was the actual engine rooms. Most other areas including the magazines, fire control and bridge were 100% accessible. An amazing feat of engineering, which is just barely 30 years shy of 100 year old technology.

One more day in Myrtle Beach and then we are off to Charleston. It is Biker week in Myrtle, so figure it is best to get out of Dodge before they show up en mass.