North Carolina battleship. The ship was built in Brooklyn in 1941. It spent most of its time in the Pacific during the war and in 1945 returned to Boston Harbor. The save our ship campaign in 1960 raised enough funds to save the ship from being scrapped and had it brought to Wilmington, NC as a memorial. The tour took us about 4 hours. We couldn’t believe how extensive the tour was and we were able to go through the entire ship on our own. There were plaques at each room telling you what it was and personal comments from service men that spent time on the ship. Some of the highlights of the tour were being able to go into a turret (area under the big guns). 
It showed the three 
steps that they went through to load them and it gave you a good feel for how cramped the area was where they spent hours during battle. They also claimed to have had a mechanical cow that whipped up some great milk. They had an ice cream parlor, barber shop, surgery room, laundry rooms and etc. It was like a floating city.
In the afternoon we took a driving tour through the historic downtown of Wilmington. The Mitchell Anderson House was built in 1740 and is the oldest surviving structure in Wilmington. The John H. Shaw’s Sons is a funeral home and Wilmington’s oldest black-owned business in continuous operation. Also St. Mary Roman Catholic Church constructed in 1908 of brick and tile, no steel, wood or nails.
Both tours took up most of the day but we enjoyed all of it.
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