Battleships: Past & Present #8; USS North Carolina Quiz

Answer: 1937, 1940, 1941

Laid down (relating to the "laying" of the keel) in 1937, launched in 1940 and commissioned in 1941 the USS North Carolina (BB-55) was the "lead ship" of a two ship class. The U.S. entered WWII in December of 1941 and USS North Carolina, commissioned in April, was new and NOT at Pearl Harbor.

Answer: USS Washington; USS Washington

Literally launched within days of one another, the USS Washington was the other ship in the two ship class and was launched first. The USS Washington had the distinction of fighting and sinking the Japanese battleship Kirishima in one of the last pure battleship duels in history. She was sold for scrap metal in 1961.

Answer: Post-Dreadnought

The USS North Carolina is most definitely a Post-Dreadnought battleship. So much so that many historians do not even refer to her in relation to the first "all big gun" battleship. She is one of the first truly modern battleships that was designed and built for the U.S. Navy with technologies only dreamed of circa WWI.

Answer: False

USS North Carolina (BB-55) was the third active ship named for the state of North Carolina by the U.S. Navy in addition to an Ironclad Gunboat built for the Confederacy during the Civil War. Another battleship was named for North Carolina (BB-52) but was cancelled before launching.

The current USS North Carolina is a nuclear powered attack sub in the Virginia Class and was launched in 2007.

Answer: All of these

USS North Carolina spent the better part of a year in shakedown and training in the Atlantic Ocean after commissioning partly due to excessive vibration in her propeller shafts. She was actually in the New York shipyard on December 7th and finally made it to the Pacific in June 1942.

She was a sight for sore eyes when she entered Pearl Harbor in early 1942 at a time when U.S. morale really needed a boost! One sailor is reported to have said "She's de most bee-utiful ting I've ever seen".

Answer: She received a lot of attention

First of the U.S. Navy's modern battleships, USS North Carolina received so much attention during her fitting out and trials that she won an enduring nickname. Radio star Walter Winchell, who often witnessed the new battleship coming and going in New York harbor, and began to call her "The Showboat", after the riverboat in the popular Broadway musical.

The name stuck and has been with her ever since.

Answer: The Invasion of Guadalcanal

The fighting at sea in support of the Guadalcanal Landings, was intense and nonstop for months. Two weeks after the initial landings, in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons was the USS North Carolina's baptism of fire. In defense of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise the North Carolina proved that the new fast battleships would be a formidable defender of the important aircraft carriers.

In her first engagement of the war, the North Carolina was credited with seven confirmed Japanese aircraft destroyed.

The smoke from her batteries was so dense that she was called on the radio to inquire if she had been hit. She was too late for Coral Sea, and Midway and Leyte Gulf took place later on.

Answer: True

On September 15th 1942, sailing with USS Wasp, the USS North Carolina took a torpedo portside, well below her waterline, and six of her crew were killed. Ironically this one torpedo, shot from the Japanese Submarine I-19, was in the same salvo sank the USS Wasp. Skillful damage control by the crew and the excellence of her construction prevented the North Carolina sinking. A serious list was quickly righted and she maintained her station in formation at over 20 knots.

Then, on 6 April, 1945 off Okinawa she downed three kamikazes, but took a 5 inch hit from a friendly ship during the melee of antiaircraft fire. Three men were killed and 44 wounded.

Answer: Went sailing in Tokyo Bay

Shortly after the end of hostilities, while anchored in Tokyo Bay, the crew of North Carolina got from below a small sailboat the captain had stored aboard, assembled it on deck and launched it in Tokyo Bay. He had said when he put it on board that one day he would sail it in Tokyo Bay.

The captain then did just that, he boarded the little boat and sailed it around the fleet anchored nearby.

Answer: No

USS North Carolina was decommissioned at New York in June 1947. Stricken from the Naval Register in 1960, and transferred to the State of North Carolina in 1961. She was purchased from the U.S. Navy for $330,000 raised by North Carolina school children. In April 1962, USS North Carolina was dedicated at Wilmington, North Carolina as a memorial to North Carolinians of all services killed in World War II and is open to the public.

In route to her final resting place, tugboats were being used to tow the ship upstream through a narrow portion of the river that was only about 500 ft wide. During this portion of the move she struck a popular local restaurant on the river that was severely damaged and had to close. Can you imagine? Waiter, Oh Waiter, there's a battleship ....

Visitors to the USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial can tour the main deck of the ship, some interior spaces, and some gun turrets. Public events are often held at the site, and spaces may be rented for private events. A Roll of Honor in the wardroom lists the names of North Carolinians who gave their lives in WWII in all the branches of the military. The Memorial is administered by the USS North Carolina Battleship Commission and receives no funding from the state.
The ship was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986.

I Hope you enjoyed the Quiz on the USS North Carolina and all in the series so far and will watch for the next one on the USS Massachusetts.