USS North Carolina (BB-55) Awards.

History Name:North Carolina Namesake: State of North Carolina Ordered: 1 August 1937 Builder: New York Naval Shipyard Cost: $76,885,750 Laid down: 27 October 1937 Launched: 13 June 1940 Sponsored by: Isabel Hoey, daughter of Clyde R. Hoey, governor of North Carolina Commissioned: 9 April 1941 Decommissioned: 27 June 1947 Struck: 1 June 1960 Identification: Hull symbol:BB-55 Code letters:NIBK November India Bravo Kilo Nickname(s): Showboat

Honors and awards: 15 Battle Stars American Defense Service ribbon American Defense Service Medal American Campaign Medal ribbon American Campaign Medal Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal ribbon Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal World War II Victory Medal ribbon World War II Victory Medal Army of Occupation ribbon Navy Occupation Medal Presidential Unit Citation (Philippines) Philippine Presidential Unit Citation Phliber rib Philippine Liberation Medal PHL Independence Medal ribbon Philippine Independence Medal Status: Museum ship since 29 April 1962 in Wilmington, North Carolina

General characteristics Class and type: North Carolina-class battleship Displacement: 37,484 short tons (34,005 t) (standard) 44,377 short tons (40,258 t) (loaded) Length: 728.8 ft (222.1 m) Beam: 108.3 ft (33.0 m) Draft: 33.0 ft (10.1 m) Installed power: 8 × boilers 121,000 hp (90,000 kW) Propulsion: 4 × General Electric steam turbines four propeller shafts Speed: 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph) in 1942 26.8 knots (49.6 km/h; 30.8 mph) in 1945 Range: 17,450 nmi (32,320 km; 20,080 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) Complement: about 2,339 (144 officers and 2,195 enlisted) Sensors and processing systems:CXAM-1 radar beginning in 1940 Armament: 9 × 16 in (410 mm)/45 caliber Mark 6 guns 20 × 5 in (130 mm)/38 caliber dual-purpose guns 16 × 1.1 in (28 mm)/75 caliber anti-aircraft guns —replaced by 15 × quad Bofors 40 mm guns (15×4) and 48 × single Oerlikon 20 mm cannons (48×1) Armor: Side belt (over vital places): 12 in (30 cm) Gun turret: 16 in (41 cm) Main deck: 1.5 in (3.8 cm) Armored Deck: 5.5 in (14 cm) Third Deck: .75 in (1.9 cm) Conning Tower: 16 in (41 cm) Aircraft carried: 3 × Vought OS2U Kingfisher floatplanes Aviation facilities: 2 × trainable catapults on her fantail

North Carolina was laid down on 27 October 1937 at the New York Naval Shipyard and launched on 13 June 1940, sponsored by the daughter of Clyde R. Hoey, the Governor of North Carolina. She was commissioned in New York City on 9 April 1941, with Captain Olaf M. Hustvedt in command. The first of the U.S. Navy's fast battleships to be commissioned, she carried a powerful main battery of nine 16 in (410 mm)/45 caliber Mark 6 guns. The ship received so much attention during her completion and sea trials that she won the lasting nickname "Showboat". North Carolina was limited to a standard displacement of 35,000 long tons (36,000 t) by both the Washington Naval Treaty and the London Naval Treaty, to a beam of less than 110 ft (34 m) by the width of the locks of the Panama Canal, and to a draft of 38 ft (12 m) so she could use as many anchorages and shipyards as possible. Thus constricted, she proved a challenge to design. As the first American battleship to be built in two decades, North Carolina was given the latest in shipbuilding technology. Her propulsion was divided into four main spaces, each with two boilers and one steam turbine per propeller shaft. This resulted in fewer openings in watertight bulkheads and minimized the area requiring protection by additional armor plate. Her propulsion systems (boilers/ turbines/shafts/propellers) suffered numerous teething troubles which were reflected in long post-commissioning defect correction period which lasted Aprli- December 1941. Her sister Washington suffered equally, and neither ship was ever able to achieve their designed deep load speed of 28 knots. On the plus side however, she was also one of just 14 ships to receive the early RCA CXAM-1 radar, and a strong (for the day) light anti-aircraft armament. Aesthetically, her large tower forward, tall uncluttered stacks, and clean supe- rstructure and hull were a sharp break from the elaborate bridgework, heavy tripod masts, and casemated secondary batteries of World War I-era battleships. Combined with her long sweeping flush deck and streamlined structure, she was far more graceful not only than her predecessors but the nearly 50 ft (15 m) shorter South Dakota-class battleships that succeeded her. Service during World War II North Carolina completed her final shakedown cruise in the Caribbean Sea before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Early in 1942 she was scheduled to steam there, but remained in the Atlantic Ocean for a few more months as a potential counter if the German battleship Tirpitz began to attack supply and troop convoys destined for Great Britain. By summer she was ordered to join the Pacific Fleet. After intensive war exercises, North Carolina departed for the Pacific theater of Operations. She was the first new battleship to arrive in the Pacific since the beginning of the war, transiting the Panama Canal on 10 June, four days after the Battle of Midway in the Central Pacific. She steamed to the port of San Pedro, California, and then to San Francisco before proceeding to Hawaii. The ship arrived at Pearl Harbor on July 11 1942; according to sailors there, North Carolina was "the most beautiful thing they had ever seen", and her arrival in Hawaii greatly increased the morale of the Pacific Fleet. North Carolina departed 15 July in a task force of the aircraft carrier Enterprise, the heavy cruiser Portland, the light cruiser Atlanta, and eight screening destroyers headed for combat in the South Pacific. North Carolina joined the long island-hopping campaign against the Japanese by assisting in the landing of U.S. Marines on the islands of Guadalcanal and Tulagi on 7 August 1942,thus beginning the long battle for Guadalcanal. The only battleship in the naval force in the South Pacific, she escorted the aircraft carriers Saratoga, Enterprise, and Wasp, surrounded by their cruisers and destroyers. After helping to screen Enterprise in the air support force for the amphibious landing, North Carolina guarded the carrier during her mission of protecting the supply and communication lines to the Solomon Islands and Guadalcanal. She participated in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, on August 24-25, 1942. The Americans struck first, sinking the carrier Ryujo. The Japanese counterattacked with dive bombers and torpedo bombers, covered by fighters, striking at Enterprise and North Carolina. In a mere eight-minute action, the ship's antiaircraft batteries shot down between 7 and 14 enemy aircraft, her gunners remaining at their posts despite the jarring detonations of seven near misses. One sailor was killed by strafing, but the ship was undamaged. Her antiaircraft fire was so heavy that the officers of Enterprise asked, "Are you afire?" North Carolina fired 841 5-inch (127 mm) shells, 1037 rounds of 1.1-inch (28 mm) shells, 7425 rounds of 20-mm shells, and 8641 rounds of .50 caliber machine gun ammunition during the attack. The gunners of her 5-inch antiaircraft guns "...estimated that the rate of fire exceeded 17 rounds per minute on all guns...", but reported both that vibrations hampered their optical range-finding and the Mark 4 FD radar had difficulty acquiring targets. The protection North Carolina could offer Enterprise was limited as the speedier carrier plunged ahead of her. Enterprise took three direct hits while her aircraft severely damaged seaplane carrier Chitose and hit other Japanese ships. With the loss of 100 Japanese aircraft, the U.S. Navy won control of the air and averted a threatened Japanese reinforcement of Guadalcanal. North Carolina next was assigned to protect Saratoga. Twice during the following weeks of support to Marines ashore on Guadalcanal, North Carolina was attacked by Japanese submarines. On 6 September, she maneuvered successfully, dodging a torpedo that passed 300 yd (270 m) off the port beam. Nine days later, while sailing with Wasp, Hornet, and ten other warships, North Carolina suffered a torpedo hit on her port side just forward of her number 1 gun turret, 20 ft (6m) below her waterline making a hole 32 ft by 18 ft, and killing five seamen. Torpedoes from the same salvo from I-19 sank Wasp and the destroyer O'Brien. Skillful damage control by North Carolina's crew and the excellence of her construction prevented disaster; a 5.6° list was righted in as many minutes, and she maintained her station in a formation at 26 kn (30 mph; 48 km/h). After temporary repairs in New Caledonia, the ship proceeded to Pearl Harbor to be dry docked for a month for repairs to her hull and to receive more antiaircraft armament. Following repairs, she returned to action, screening Enterprise and Saratoga and covering supply and troop movements in the Solomons for much of the next year. She was at Pearl Harbor in March and April 1943 to receive advanced fire control and radar gear, and again in September, to prepare for the Gilbert Islands operation. North Carolina Museum Ship. Wilmington, North Carolina. 2006