2012 Battleship

[Channing Arther]

Mooredacross from historic downtown Wilmington, the Battleship welcomes visitors daily. Plot your own course as you explore nine levels, climb inside gun turrets, marvel at early computers, and see where the crew ate, slept, and worked. Crew stories throughout the Ship introduce you to the 2,000 young men who called the Showboat home.

Encircling the Ship, the State Employees Credit Union (SECU) Walkway provides an opportunity to appreciate her majesty and power. Enjoy a picnic in Battleship Park or savor a meal in Wilmington. And take a piece of her home from the Battleship Steel Collection!

We were unsure how long we would spend with two small kids (ages 4 & 7) and ended up spending over 2 hours on this huge battleship! The experience really makes you appreciate the men and women who defend our nation as you can tour many levels of the ship. You get a chance to see how the sailors lived their daily lives as you see many different sections, including above and below the main deck.

This is a unique opportunity to get to tour this class of Battleship. The staff here is very friendly and does a great job of maintaining this ship and opening it up as much as possible for tours. It was really a treat to get to see the very tight working spaces inside the 16-inch gun turrets.

I served 4 years in the Navy on an aircraft carrier. What could I learn on a tour of the North Carolina? A lot! Our tour guide took our group of four from the bridge to the bilge and from the bow to the fantail. He tailored the tour to our liking, stopped when anyone needed a break, and always made sure we saw everything we wanted to see.

An incredible ship, with an equally incredible history. We toured the vessel on our own, taking time to read crew memories and explore in our own time over a 2hr period. Surprised how much is accessible! Loved exploring below deck. We had a great experience learning more about BSNC and her crew. Nice souvenirs to take home in the gift shop, too.

YOU can directly impact our mission to continue the "Big J's" on-going maintenance, restoration and public education programs by becoming a "Crew Member" of the Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial.

When visitors first witness the Battleship New Jersey, they are amazed at its sheer size. Nearly three football fields long and over 11 stories high, the Battleship New Jersey was the longest battleship ever built.

USS IOWA has a long and fascinating history. She was built as the lead vessel of the newest class of battleships, designed during the 1930s as the world was rapidly moving toward war. Commissioned in 1943, IOWA was used in both the Atlantic and the Pacific theaters during World War II.

This type of ship had its origins during the US Civil War, when both the North and the South produced iron-clad warships. A famous naval battle just north of Norfolk, VA between the USS MONITOR and the USS MERRIMACK (rebuilt and renamed the CSS VIRGINIA by the South) demonstrated that existing wooden ships had become obsolete.

In 1869, the HMS MONARCH, built by Great Britain, became the first ocean-going iron-hulled battleship. One of the changes that began to show up on Civil War ships was the replacement of broadside guns pointing out of portholes in the side of the ship with guns mounted in swiveling turrets on the main deck. MONARCH embraced this change fully and represented the first truly modern warship.

The first battleship built for the US navy was USS MAINE, constructed in the navy yard in New York City. The last, never finished, was KENTUCKY, whose construction came to an end in 1947 at the Norfolk Navy Yard. In total, the naval history of the U.S. includes the construction of 59 battleships of 23 different classes.

There is a large number of naval history exhibits around the country that feature ships from the United States Navy. The greatest number are ships from WWII. The oldest is the USS CONSTITUTION, whose construction began in 1797 and which is still a commissioned ship.

The Washington Navy Yard, beginning in the early 1800s, was an important center of ship and gun production for the U.S. navy until ordinance and gun production ceased in 1961. The new national museum of the Navy, sometimes colloquially called the Naval Gun Factory Museum, was opened in 1963.

Battleship USS Iowa is a community platform leveraged for engaging and impactful programs. We focus our activities into three primary pillars: education, veterans, and community.

The museum is operated by Pacific Battleship Center, a 501c3 non-profit organization solely supported by admissions, donations, event space rentals, and gift shop. We do not receive government funding for our operations.

The Battleship New Jersey is the longest, fastest, most decorated battleship in history. She was first commissioned in 1943 and last decommissioned in 1991. She served in World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Lebanese Civil War, Cold War, and the Persian Gulf. More than 55,000 Sailors and Marines served on board during almost a half century of service to our country.

Your purchase of this special plate will help restore, preserve, exhibit, and interpret the history of the USS New Jersey and her veterans for current and future generations. The proceeds will support the Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial.

Together, these ships were one short of equalling Japan's active battlefleet. Clearly a worrisome threat to Japanese plans for Pacific Ocean dominance, they were the Japanese raiders' priority target. Twenty-four of the forty Japanese torpedo planes were assigned to attack "Battleship Row", and five more diverted to that side of Ford Island when they found no battleships in their intended target areas. Of these planes' twenty-nine Type 91 aerial torpedoes (each with a warhead of some 450 pounds of high explosive), up to twenty-one found their targets: two hit California, one exploded against Nevada and as many as nine each struck Oklahoma and West Virginia. The latter two ships sank within minutes of receiving this torpedo damage.

Horizontal bombers, armed with heavy armor-piercing bombs, arrived just as the last torpedo planes finished their attacks, and other horizontal and dive bombers came in later. Together, these planes scored many hits or damaging near-misses on the "Battleship Row" ships: two on California, Maryland and Tennessee; a few on West Virginia. Most spectacular of the bombers' victims was Arizona, which was struck many times. One bomb penetrated to the vicinity of her forward magazines, which detonated with a massive blast, immediately sinking the ship. Nevada, which got underway during the latter part of the attack, attracted many dive bombers, was hit repeatedly as she steamed slowly between Ford Island and the Navy Yard, and, sinking and ablaze, had to be run ashore.

The Japanese had thus put out of action all seven battleships present on "Battleship Row". Two, Maryland and Tennessee, were repaired in a matter of weeks, as was the Pennsylvania. However, three were under repair for a year or more. Oklahoma and Arizona would never return to service. Even with the addition of three more battleships brought around from the Atlantic, the Japanese battleline was assured of absolute superiority in the critical months to come.

In 1980, Cape Fear Museum received a collection of more than two hundred and fifty artifacts from the estate of long-time Wilmington politician James E L. "Hi Buddy" Wade (1889 to 1980). Many photographs document events in the city over Mr. Wade's lifetime.

In September 1961, the World War II-era USS North Carolina left dry dock in New Jersey, heading down to the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Its journey had really begun more than a year earlier when the Navy announced the ship would be scrapped. At that point, citizens of North Carolina banded together to save it and raised $330,000 to bring the ship to Wilmington. The battleship arrived at the mouth of the river on October 1. Bad weather delayed the ship, and on October 2, the largest vessel ever to move up the Cape Fear River began to be pulled by tug boats towards the berth.

People lined the river to see the ship. They saw more than they bargained for. The piloting challenges were huge-the boat was longer than the river was wide-and there was another obstacle, a floating restaurant. The North Carolina damaged it. Despite this mishap, the battleship was put into its final position at high tide on October 3, 1961. It still draws crowds more than forty years later.

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