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CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT

Battleship North Carolina In Need of Emergency Repairs

Kate Brandis, WHQR
Rusting in the bowels of the ship.

Battleship North Carolina stands as a tribute to those who served in World War II and attracts a quarter-million visitors each year. But the ship, permanently moored in Wilmington, is in need of emergency repairs. 

Even the strongest people and monuments age with time, and the steel hull of Battleship North Carolina is thinning. In some spots, a finger can poke through. That’s because the last major repairs were done over sixty years ago, despite the fact that the U.S. Navy’s standard requires repairs every twenty years.

The World War II memorial receives no federal or state funding for repairs.

The Department of the Navy has given Battleship North Carolina two choices: either develop a plan for repair or dispose of the ship. 

Captain Terry Bragg is the Battleship’s Executive Director.  He says the U.S.S. North Carolina is the people’s battleship, as public funding brought it to permanently reside in Wilmington. He says that similar public support is necessary to preserve the Battleship North Carolina as a memorial and education center.