By Henry Burnett
Intern
A corps of 32 volunteers shared maritime memories and firsthand knowledge with international tourists and Wilmington residents during Battleship 101, a comprehensive tour given on July 11.
Museum Services Director Kim Sincox said as many as 2,000 people, both young and old, visit the ship each day during the summer. Eight-year-old Chandler Denton, of Morganton, N.C., said his visit was “pretty awesome, because my great-granddad was on this ship.”
Like many visitors, most of the volunteers had a personal connection to WWII or life on a battleship. John Pennington, who worked 37 years as a civilian contractor for the Navy, shared his experiences from the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Va.
He said his work taught him about weapons like those on the USS North Carolina.
“I’ve been in the powder room when you make the charges,” Pennington said.
Joe Duquette, who served as a Navy dental technician, described the battleship as important to the Wilmington economy.
“I was one of the guys who restored the dentist’s office, which is where I was working today,” he said. “It’s an honor to serve on this ship. It brings in people from all over the world.”
For Thomas Brockschmidt, from near Hamburg, Germany, the cannons, or 16-inch guns were the most exciting part.
“We’re from the German army,” he said. “For us that is the most important thing on a warship.”
While the guns and glory engaged many visitors, volunteers Linda Lashley and Judy Ward reminded guest the USS North Carolina is important to women’s history.
Ward, dressed as a USO entertainer, said women were prescribed strict rules for how to act around servicemen.
“The USO was not at all like a dance hall like you see on TV,” she said. “You had to be a prim and proper lady to be part of the USO.”
Lashley, dressed like Rosie the Riveter, said when men enlisted during WWII, many factories hired women.
“Many people do not know that Wilmington had a shipbuilding company that built ships for the war effort,” she said.
Lashley said women like her grandmother tasted out-of-the-house work during the war, but were laid off when men returned from fighting. This taste grew into hunger for independence, and helped start the women’s movement, she said.
Though the war advanced rights for some, for others the battleship symbolizes the racial separation that continues to divide the United States.
“The ship, just like the rest of society, was segregated,” Sincox said.
The black quarters, located in a less-accessible part of the ship, are not open to regular tour guests. Below deck on Saturday, volunteers displayed photos that showed black cooks preparing meals for white officers.
Sincox hopes events like Battleship 101, which shows both the bad and the good of the legendary ship’s history, will help the ship attract more visitors.
“We are a state museum,” she said, “but we are self-supporting. We make our own money.”
Raising that money requires creativity, she said. In addition to events like Battleship 101, the museum organizes private tours for guests who want to see off-limits areas and rents space to host naturalization ceremonies, Marine “mess nights” and even weddings.
“It’s a warship,” Sincox said, “but it can be really romantic.”
