The USS North Carolina (BB-55)

[Red October1984]

I saw it today....

I spent 5 hours exploring the thing and playing with it. I probably took 100 pictures. I'll post some of the highlight pictures when they're finished uploading to DropBox and Imageshack.

[Red October1984]

Sorry for the quality of some of these. I took them with my iPod camera.

The Kingfisher





40mm Bofors. This one was movable. I "attacked" the planes going in and out of the airport nearby.







Resting in the crew quarters



Plotting Room



Part of the Radio Room (Sailor Steve, that one's for you.)



Inside the 16 inch gun's loading mechanism





View Aft from the Bow



Manning the 5 Inch gun





Kills



In the Engine Room



I climbed into a 16 inch gun turret and sighted a ship in the harbor. This is through the periscope.



Soooo I proceeded to plot an attack on the plotting board inside the turret.



Here's part of the loading system inside the turret itself.



Cardboard Cutout people loading the powder charges



CIC



There's a bunch more pictures. I should've taken more....and these are some of the highlights.

Sadly, they won't let you in CIC and there are places that are closed off...but that was well worth the 12$ admission.

[les green01]

nice pics did you get any kills

[Sailor Steve]

Looks good so far. Vintage ships are always cool.

[Father Goose]

Good show!
Looking forward to seeing more when you have time.

[u crank]

Nice Red. Keep them comin'.

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by Father Goose

Good show!
Looking forward to seeing more when you have time.

Well there's the Galley and some other little stuff...

Guess I'll drop a couple more.

Here's some of an Oerlikon





They took all the sights off all of the Oerlikons for some reason. Some of the Bofors guns had sights but all of the Oerlikons had no sights, most were pointed straight up, and there were only one or two in good presentable condition. The rest were all rusty and broken.

Engine Telegraph. Once again, they go taking stuff off.



2,700 LB Armor Piercing 16in Shell with a range of 21 miles.



Stuff in the Plotting Room (This room was enclosed with a little walkway through it.)





Operating Table in the Sick Bay



Two more Radio Room shots






Some of these I took more than one picture of...as you might see.

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by les green01

nice pics did you get any kills

Well...the one 40mm Bofors gun was movable. There's an airport not far from the ship and planes were coming in or going out all day....so at one point I sat for a bit and "attacked" the planes.

I also plotted the attack on the boat in the harbor with the 16 inch gun even though the turret was locked in place the Periscope wasn't.

I was playing with the 5 inch gun when two Marine choppers flew real low over the ship. I let them go. I could've made it to a Bofors in time...but they were friendlies so I let them pass.

[Father Goose]

Sounds like you had a blast...just being a kid.
I'm jealous.

[les green01]

really does sound like you had a blast

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by Father Goose

Sounds like you had a blast...just being a kid.
I'm jealous.

It was awesome... I'm not exactly a kid...but today I felt like one again.

Out of me, my Dad and my Brother I was the only one who remembered the way around and remembered which way Port, Starboard, Fore and Aft were.

I really wish I could've gotten a look in CIC. I couldn't pick a favorite part if I tried.

I also really wish that everything was fully restored to actual working condition. There are hundreds and possibly thousands of buttons, switches, handles, chains, belts, wheels, etc that are missing. It would be the coolest thing ever to see that ship move.

EDIT: I also got this Submarines and U-boats poster in the Gift Shop. I'll post a pic when I get it up on my wall at home. I almost bought the Revell USS NC kit but I didn't think I would be very good at it considering how many small parts needed to be glued and painted.

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by Red October1984

One thing for sure they sure did not feed you to well back then in the Navy.

You should go visit the USS Drum and USS Alabama down in Mobile,Alabama some time you pay one admission for both.You can pay extra and stay the night in the USS Alabama and get a much longer tour of nearly the entire ship.

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by Armistead

I live in NC, been many times, great ship. They do gun and light shows often at night, really cool effect of war, but not sure the schedule of it anymore.

You should head down to Charleston to Patriot's Point if you haven't been yet.

I haven't heard of the gun and light shows.

What's at Patriot's Point? I'll have to Google that.

Originally Posted by Stealhead

One thing for sure they sure did not feed you to well back then in the Navy.

There were little info boards all through the ship and all the ones pertaining to food say that the food was good. They had a menu in there and it sounded like really good food. The "Crew Memories" all say it was great stuff.

You should go visit the USS Drum and USS Alabama down in Mobile,Alabama some time you pay one admission for both.You can pay extra and stay the night in the USS Alabama and get a much longer tour of nearly the entire ship.

There's tons of ships I want to see... So far I've only seen the USS NC and the U-505.

I want to see the USS Razorback in Little Rock really bad.

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by Red October1984

There were little info boards all through the ship and all the ones pertaining to food say that the food was good. They had a menu in there and it sounded like really good food. The "Crew Memories" all say it was great stuff.

I was joking about the super thin mannequins.

My great uncle was on the USS Minneapolis sister ship to the ill fated USS Indianapolis.Minneapolis was much more lucky she got her bow ripped off by a long lance torpedo in the Battle of Tassafaronga actually the torpedo did not explode hence the Lucky Lady name the long lance usually did go boom unlike American torpedoes.My uncle said that supposedly during the typhoon in 1944 a sailor got washed overboard a certain death but then got washed back on deck.That might have been scuttlebutt.She was called the Lucky Lady after surviving the long lance hit.

Anyway my uncle and his brother in law also a Minneapolis sailor used to joke often about how bad the food was and they both still joke about it.
One of their favorites is; "If it moves it aint a raisin!"(it is a weevil) They did say that lots off ice cream would be served in the mess before a major battle especially.Of course weevils are high in protein so from a nutritional stand point weevils are good for you.

Back in WWII in the surface navy food quality depended sometimes it was not so great for enlisted men.Typically they did not want to throw away things like weevil infested flour.On a sub the cook would have tossed that flour overboard and done without rather than serve everyone bugs.Of course all of the food was not bad but certain thing you did not eat like "raisins" or powdered eggs.

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by Stealhead

I was joking about the super thin mannequins.

I see now.

Anyway my uncle and his brother in law also a Minneapolis sailor used to joke often about how bad the food was and they both still joke about it.
One of their favorites is; "If it moves it aint a raisin!"(it is a weevil) They did say that lots off ice cream would be served in the mess before a major battle especially.Of course weevils are high in protein so from a nutritional stand point weevils are good for you.

Back in WWII in the surface navy food quality depended sometimes it was not so great for enlisted men.Typically they did not want to throw away things like weevil infested flour.On a sub the cook would have tossed that flour overboard and done without rather than serve everyone bugs.Of course all of the food was not bad but certain thing you did not eat like "raisins" or powdered eggs.

Yes there were a few stories about "Raisins" on the information boards in the galley and crew mess.

I think one of the best stories was in the sick bay. There were like 23 men who got circumcised on the ship. It says that later on, that procedure was stopped because they figured out how to use that skin for other purposes. I think they said something about fixing the skin around your eyes.

I don't exactly remember. I was too busy looking around. I read all the story board things...but I only remember the good ones. Like the one in the laundry room about the guys who would tie knots in the pants of somebody they don't like, step on the pants leg, pull the knot tight, wash it, and make it to where the knot won't come out and when it comes out their uniform won't be fit to pass inspection.

Or another laundry room story about taking baths in the washing machines...until some joker came along and pressed the start button.