From the October 1st Wilmington (NC) Star-News.
The Battleship North Carolina might never have come to Wilmington had it not been for the untiring efforts of these two men.
In 1958, the US Navy proposed to dispose of the USS NC and USS Washington along with other World War II era ships. The North Carolina had been decommissioned in 1947 and had been at Bayonne, New Jersey in the Atlantic Reserve fleet ever since. Battleships had been made obsolete in the age of nuclear aircraft carriers and submarines.
Jimmy Craig, an advertising executive at Wilmington's WECT-TV, had been a World War II veteran and decided he wanted the ship to "retire" to Wilmington. He was also a member of the Wilmington American Legion Post 10, and on Jan. 9, 1959, they set up a battleship committee and began lobbying Governor Luther H. Hodges to appoint a state battleship committee, what eventually became the Battleship North Carolina Commission, which still runs the ship.
Fellow World War II veteran Hugh Morton, who later became famous as the owner and developer of North Carolina's Grandfather Mountain and the first president of the NC Azalea Festival in Wilmington. Morton was a man who really knew the tourism industry.
And, this battleship was to be a key part of getting people to come to the Wilmington area.
"Show Boat's" Coming Home. --DaCoot
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