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Museum Pieces: Battleship "North Carolina" [1]

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Date: 2023-10-31  

The WW2 battleship North Carolina is one of the top tourist attractions in Wilmington NC.

"Museum Pieces" is a diary series that explores the history behind some of the most interesting museum exhibits and historical places.

USS North Carolina

In the aftermath of the First World War, the victorious Entente Allies were ready for a change. With an entire generation of young men lying mangled in the trenches, the world was tired of war and was determined to make an idealistic effort to end it. Within a few years of the Versailles Treaty which ended the Great War, most nations had signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, in which they solemnly pledged to renounce the use of armed force.

A series of disarmament agreements were negotiated in the 1920s and 30s. One of these, the 1925 Geneva Protocols, banned the use of chemical weapons, such as the phosgene and mustard that had soaked the battlefields in France. The Geneva Conventions spelled out the “laws of war”, prohibiting things such as exploding bullets, and also detailing the treatment to be given enemy POWs. Another agreement was the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, which set limits on the number and size of naval battleships.

The first class of new battleships that the US Navy produced under the terms of the Washington Treaty were designated North Carolina class. Two of these were planned, with the North Carolina to be followed by the Washington. Being the first of the “modern” battleships to be built by the US after the Great War, North Carolina was the subject of considerable press attention, leading many to dub her the “Showboat”.

As these ships were being designed, the world's naval powers met again in 1936 and attempted to produce a new naval treaty. Germany and Japan refused to participate, however, and the US, France and Great Britain agreed amongst themselves to limit their newest ships, but also agreed that if any other nation broke those limits, it would free everyone from those restrictions.

As originally designed, then, the North Carolina class was to be armed with 14-inch guns, the largest allowed under the Washington Treaty. But when Japan and Germany began producing their own battleships with bigger guns, the US Navy invoked the treaty's “escalator clause” and changed the North Carolina class to carry a main armament of nine 16-inch guns, carried in three turrets.

In the late 1930s, most world navies still viewed the big-gun battleship as the backbone of the fleet, and naval engagements would, it was assumed, consist of long-range duels with high-caliber guns. There were a few here and there who foresaw the rise of naval air power and aircraft carriers, but they were a minority. Recognizing the potential threat, though, the Navy added a total of thirty-four 28mm and .50-caliber anti-aircraft guns—enough, it was presumed, to protect the ship from enemy airplanes. The battleship carried three Kingfisher seaplanes, launched from two catapults on the stern, which would be used for long-range reconnaissance and for artillery spotting.

The North Carolina was 729 feet long and displaced 45,000 tons fully loaded. She had a top speed of 28 knots and a range over 17,000 nautical miles. The armor belt along the waterline, designed mostly to protect against submarine torpedoes, was 12 inches thick, while the upper deck had over five inches of armor. This armor had been designed to defend against the 14-inch guns that had been allowed under the Washington Treaty: by the time the Japanese began work on the Yamato and Musashi with 18-inch guns, the hull of the North Carolina had already been largely finished, and while the Carolina's main guns could be enlarged in response, the armor could not be. Nevertheless, the North Carolina was expected to be able to stand toe-to-toe in combat with the Japanese ships.

With her keel first laid at New York in October 1937, the hull was launched in 1940, and North Carolina officially entered service in April 1941. When the attack came at Pearl Harbor, the battleship was on shakedown duty in the Caribbean, and quickly began combat training for action in the Pacific. North Carolina emerged from the Panama Canal in June 1942 and was assigned to Task Force 18 with the carrier Wasp.

It quickly became apparent that the Pacific War with Japan was going to be a carrier duel based around air power, and the North Carolina was withdrawn several times to be refitted, mostly to add more anti-aircraft guns and new radar systems. Returning in time for the Guadalcanal landings in the summer of 1942, the battleship was damaged by a Japanese submarine in September (the carrier Wasp was sunk during this same action).

The North Carolina would go on to participate in the island-hopping campaigns at the Gilbert Islands and the Marshalls, finishing with Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Although she served in a variety of Task Forces with a number of different carriers, her relatively slow speed caused some difficulties, and her primary roles were in providing shore fire and as an anti-aircraft platform. When the Japanese surrender came in August 1945, North Carolina was accompanying US carriers during raids on the Japanese mainland. During the war, she had received a total of 12 battle stars.

Upon her return to the United States, North Carolina was mothballed until 1960, then removed from the Navy's roster. There was some consideration given to upgrading her, but it was found that the hull was too narrow to fit the newer engines which would be needed. She was then scheduled to be scrapped, but was saved by a fundraising campaign, led mostly by schoolchildren, which raised over $325,000 and allowed the State of North Carolina to buy her. After being fitted out as a museum ship, North Carolina was docked in the Cape Fear River in Wilmington, where she was opened to the public in 1962. She has since then been declared a National Historic Landmark, and is a major tourist attraction, receiving over a quarter-million visitors per year.

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