North Carolina (Battleship : BB-55)

The USS North Carolina, known as "the Showboat", was launched in October 1937 as the first of ten North Carolina-class fast battleships. It was armed with nine 16 inch guns in three turrets and 20 5 inch, .38 caliber guns in ten twin mounts, and considered the most powerful naval ship of the era. The USS North Carolina served in the Pacific theater of the Second World War, where it operated as a mobile weapons platform tasked with protecting aircraft carriers from Japanese attacks. It was struck by a torpedo in September of 1942 and forced to return to Pearl Harbor for repairs but quickly rejoined the war effort, leading Task Force 39 in the attack on the Marshall Islands. By the end of the Second World War the North Carolina was the most decorated battleship of the conflict, participating in every major naval offensive in the Pacific theater and earning 15 battle stars. After the war, the battleship served as a training vessel for midshipmen before being decommissioned and placed in the Inactive Reserve Fleet in 1947. It was designated to be scrapped in 1960, but the citizens of North Carolina organized a fundraising campaign to bring the ship to its namesake state. It was moored in Wilmington, North Carolina and opened to the public in October of 1961.