Battleship North Carolina

Many of our attractions with historic significance are located in downtown Wilmington. One of the city’s most popular attractions, and certainly our largest, is that grand, gray old lady, the Battleship North Carolina, moored across the Cape Fear River from downtown’s Riverfront Park.

The third in a line of naval vessels dating back to 1820 that were commissioned North Carolina, our proud ship participated in every major battle in the Pacific during World War II, and won 15 battle stars before being decommissioned in 1947.

Scheduled by the Navy to be scrapped, a successful statewide campaign to save the North Carolina began in 1958. In 1961, the ship was moved from New Jersey to its present location. Those who have toured the Battleship are surprised that gunners were able to operate in the cramped quarters in the gun turrets. How anyone could sleep in the stacked bunks in another mystery.

The Battleship serves as both an attraction to be toured and a tribute to the North Carolinians who served in the military during WW II. It also is a memorial to the more than 10,000 who died in service to their state and nation.

A new North Carolina was christened in 2007 and commissioned right here in Wilmington in 2008. This fourth North Carolina is one of the U.S. Navy’s fast-attack nuclear submarines of the Virginia class.