After finishing up my beach trip, I decided to drive down to Wilmington North Carolina to spend a day with some friends that recently moved into the area. This was a perfect opportunity to check out one of the nation’s battleship museums. Specifically, the battleship North Carolina. This was the first US fast battleship that started a line of ships ending with the Iowa class. The museum is across the bridge from the city of Wilmington.
The museum includes a lot of history on the ship itself, along with full names of the ship’s compliment and casualties during its short career. You do not need to know much about the ship to to enjoy the tours and learn as you go. However, a little online read does not hurt either!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_North_Carolina_%28BB-55%29
The museum starts off with a small museum, showing the history of ships named North Carolina. You can just take the tour yourself and also get a short narrated tour. We opted for both. The narrated tour starts in the museum and takes you around various area on the main deck of the ship and is easy for those that are mobility impaired. The self walking tour is a bit harder, as the signage and provided map are not too clear, so you might find yourself backtracking occasionally to find specific area of the ship (assuming you want to see everything).
You can see all the main and see deck areas. Two of the sixteen inch gun and one of the five inch gun turrets are fully accessible (if a bit tricky to get into). Full access to the main bridge and supporting facilities is provided. The lower desk access is pretty substantial. You can access many crew areas, mess locations, ship facilities (post office, soda fountain, etc), main gun basket, gun targeting center and engine room.
I ended up spending three hours walking through all the areas of the ship. It is noticeable different from its larger latter cousins the Iowas. Clearly less modern and comfortable for the crew! Once I was done crawling through the bowls of the ship, I headed to the museum and checked out that display. It is only one room, so a quick tour.
My only negative surprise was that there was no snack bar or cafe. They have a couple of vending machines, but you are better served eating before you arrive, so you can take your time without stomach pangs.
- Manteuffel