Doc Adams' photostream  

Luanched in April 1945, she was the most technically advanced battleship in our fleet. She earned the nickname "Showboat" during her sea trials.

Below is a summary of her service record. We are so proud to have this historic ship in our city.

copied from : www.battleshipnc.com/AbouttheShip/History

"During World War II, NORTH CAROLINA participated in every major naval offensive in the Pacific area of operations and earned 15 battle stars. In the Battle of the Eastern Solomon’s in August of 1942, the Battleship’s anti-aircraft barrage helped save the carrier ENTERPRISE, thereby establishing the primary role of the fast battleship as protector of aircraft carriers. One of her Kingfisher pilots performed heroically during the strike on Truk when he rescued ten downed Navy aviators on 30 April 1944. In all, NORTH CAROLINA carried out nine shore bombardments, sank an enemy troopship, destroyed at least 24 enemy aircraft, and assisted in shooting down many more. Her anti-aircraft guns helped halt or frustrate scores of attacks on aircraft carriers. She steamed over 300,000 miles. Although Japanese radio announcements claimed six times that NORTH CAROLINA had been sunk, she survived many close calls and near misses with one hit when a Japanese torpedo slammed into the Battleship’s hull on 15 September 1942. A quick response on the part of the crew allowed the mighty ship to keep up with the fleet. By war’s end, the Ship lost only ten men in action and had 67 wounded."

Eagle Island is a large island in the Cape Fear river. It is directly across the river from downtown Wilmington and is also the home of the battleship USS North Carolina.
This photo was taken near the battleship and it was once swampland with a large grove of Bald Cypress trees.
At that time the river at this location and this swamp contained fresh water. When the canal at Snow's Cut was created in 1931, it introduced salt water into the Cape Fear about 8 miles further north than the New Inlet at Fort Fisher.
This cause the water around Eagle Island to become brackish. The salt content was too much for the cypress. Thus, the "Ghost Swamp" was created.
The cypress groves can still be found along the river a few miles upstream from Wilmington where the salt content is not as much.

(37 sec video with sound)
The pusher tug "Cape Fear" pushing a barge upstream thru downtown Wilmington.

It was so warm in Wilmington today I had to turn on my car air conditioning (note the green light in the lower right)

By the way, Steve, the A/C works great in the winter ...I'm sure you know the rest of the story.

I think my lens needs cleaning :((

Some of you young folks may not remember the things mentioned in this song by the Statler Brothers.
oldfortyfives.com/DYRT.htm