East Coast Bound--Day 18

A Sunday drive to see a big ship.

We got up and out a little earlier than normal this morning. Destination: Wilmington, North Carolina, to tour the USS North Carolina. This is a World War II battleship that is now a museum ship. The keep was laid down for her in 1937 and she was commissioned in April 1941. She served throughout the Pacific during the war spending a large portion of her time helping to protect the Navy's aircraft carriers. During the war she earned 15 battle stars. She was decommissioned in June 1947 and was assigned to the mothball fleet in New Jersey. In 1960 the Navy announced their intentions to sell the ship for salvage. That is when the people of North Carolina moved to action to save their namesake ship. The ship opened for tours in 1961. She has been completely restored to her World War II configuration and nearly all spaces are open to the public. We did the entire tour, from the engine rooms all the way up to the bridge. (Here I am sitting in the Captain's Chair on the bridge.) The only disappointment was the Chief's Mess was not on the tour. The group that operates the ship now uses that space for their offices and storage. That is a shame because the Chief's Mess is normally the nucleus of any Navy ship.

Before we boarded the ship we drove into Wilmington for lunch. Had a good lunch at a little restaurant right on the waterfront with a good view of the ship across the harbor. We wound up spending most of the afternoon on the ship before we headed the back the 70 or so miles to Myrtle Beach. After dinner in the coach we took the dogs for a walk on the beach since they had been cooped up inside all day. The weather was a little cooler today than what we've had since arriving and we had more wind, coming from the north today. This should blow out of here tonight and warm back up tomorrow as we make our trek back down to Savannah.