Book Reviews, Thoughts, and Random Interesting Ideas

I haven’t done a travel post in a while as we have been uncharacteristically staying at home this year. While it has been a good time for learning about marketing The Gemstone Chronicles, Lana and I miss seeing new places. Part of that was due to the lovely and adorable Lana having back surgery, but she is on the mend and we decided to make a recent weekend trip to Wilmington, NC. Why Wilmington? I visited the city for a business trip and thought it was a place Lana would enjoy, so when the opportunity arose for the visit, we took it!

Now for a little history about Wilmington. Native Americans long inhabited the area. English colonists began to settle the area in the 1720s. Originally called New Carthage, then New Liverpool, and finally, around 1739 or 1740, Wilmington was incorporated. Below is a picture of the oldest home in Wilmington.

Naval stores and lumber formed much of Wilmington’s economy. Naval stores were resin-based products used in building and maintaining wooden ships. Much of the labor in Wilmington’s early history came from indentured servants (poor immigrants who had to work for a prescribed number of years to gain their freedom in the colonies). As the indentured servants gained their freedom, African slave labor replaced their labor. By the late 1760s, the slave population accounted for over 60% of the Wilmington area population.

Wilmington and Wars:

Wilmington was a hotbed of resistance as the colonies moved toward the American Revolution and they even had their own version of the Sons of Liberty! Many important protests occurred in Wilmington:

• In 1764, Parliament passed the Sugar Act and Wilmington resident Cornelius Harnett rallied opposition to the Act
• In 1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act and, in Feb 1766, two ships without stamped papers were seized by the British. Up to 1000 men, lead by Cornelius Harnett confronted William Tryon, the Governor, about the ships. Tryon refused to release the ships, so the men seized the ships and forced the customs officers and public officials to swear never to issue stamped paper. Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766.

During the American Civil War, Wilmington was a major port and a busy base for the Confederacy and the private blockade runners, who brought badly needed supplies from England. Union forces captured the city in February 1865, but the majority of the battles of the war took place some distance from the Wilmington. Many of its Antebellum period structures survived.

I could go on about the history of the area, but I want to talk about our stay. If you want more Wilmington history, there are tons of articles about it and I encourage you to read about it. Fascinating stuff! Anyway, we stayed just a few miles from the historic downtown area of Wilmington and took full advantage of the location. We had dinner at The Oceania, a nice moderately priced restaurant at Wrightsville Beach. We started out eating outside on the deck, but it was raining and windy, so we moved inside and watched the wild surf through the windows. Nice way to spend some time enjoying the food, and the company!

Cape Fear River:

Saturday, the weather was warmer, the sun was out, and we took a boat tour of the Cape Fear River. I learned some cool stuff about the river. It is a tidal river and the rise and fall of the tides can change the river depth by 5 feet! You can also tell where the salt begins to be replaced with fresher water because the cypress trees aren’t dead. Until that point, there are tons of dead cypress trees along the river’s edge. The locals call them “ghost trees” because of their pale color. Here are some shots from our river trip:

The Cape Fear River has dark water, too. This is due to the tannins that leach out of the cypress trees. Wilmington water has to be filtered to remove the tannins. Below is a shot of the water churned up by the boat. Note the dark brown color.

One of the highlights of the river cruise was seeing the osprey nests. While we didn’t see any of the birds, the nest were huge!

Food:

After the boat tour, we had brunch at The George on the Riverwalk. Beautiful place and the food was great! The restaurant is right on the water, and the views of the boats on the water and the river itself made for great atmosphere.

We also took a horse-drawn carriage tour of the downtown area. It was enjoyable (though not as much as the tours of Charleston), and the really cool part was that all of the horses used for the tour are rescue horses from Amish country.

We visited a shop that made candy and watched them for a while. We managed to get out of there without buying any of the sweets, but it was tough to do it! Everything looked and smelled amazing! Check out these sweets!!

USS North Carolina (BB-55):

We also visited the USS North Carolina (BB-55) while in Wilmington. I did a separate post on the battleship, but here are a couple of pictures taken during our river trip. Impressive, don’t you think?

There you have a quick overview of our visit to Wilmington, NC. Beautiful weather, good food, interesting sites, and the best traveling companion in the world made this one delightful weekend getaway. I’m sure there will be a return trip in the not too distant future!

Have you visited Wilmington? If you have, what was your favorite memory? If not, consider it, but leave me a comment and let me know where your favorite spot is. After all, now that Lana is retired, we need to start planning some travel!

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Connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, or email me at bill@williamlstuart.com. If you don’t want to miss a post, please subscribe to the blog. I look forward to connecting!

I wanted to take a break from my usual posts about The Gemstone Chronicles, books, and marketing, and talk about some US Navy history and the USS North Carolina (BB-55). Lana and I spent a weekend in Wilmington, NC recently (more about Wilmington in an upcoming post) and had the privilege of visiting the World War II era battleship USS North Carolina (BB-55). What an impressive ship it was, too!

According to Wikipedia, the North Carolina was the first in her class of battleships. The keel was laid in October 1937 and launched almost 3 years later in 1940. She was assigned to the Pacific Fleet and saw action in most of the major battles in the Pacific during the war. The ship had an impressive battle record and was only damaged once (by a torpedo) during her tour in the war.

USS North Carolina continued to serve through the balance of WWII before being decommissioned in 1947. Stricken from the Navy rolls in 1960, she was transferred to the state of North Carolina in 1961, the result of a campaign by North Carolina school children called “Save our Ship.”

Here are some vital stats for the ship:

• 728.8 feet long
• 108.3 foot beam
• 33 foot draft
• Ship’s complement 2339 (144 officers, 2195 enlisted)
• 15 Battle Stars
• American Defense Service Medal
• American Campaign Medal
• WWII Victory Medal

The ship has many more awards and much more history than I can do justice to in this post, so do a little research and discover all about it. But now, I want to talk about my impressions about the ship.

The Guns:

First, let me say that a 16 inch gun is one big pea shooter! I climbed into one of the main battery turrets and was duly impressed. The 5 inch guns seemed adequate to their tasks, and the anti-aircraft guns that lined the perimeter of the deck would have been intimidating the any aircraft that decided to challenge the might of the ship. The picture below is the forward main gun turret with the 16 inch guns.

The picture below shows the 16 inch guns and the 5 inch and AA guns. You can also see the teak decks.

Though I didn’t take pictures, the wardroom was large, the officer staterooms were spacious, and the sailor’s racks actually had lockers for storage. I mention all of this because, as a former submarine sailor who didn’t have such spacious accommodations, it seemed luxurious!

There was a group of Air Force JROTC students touring the ship while I was aboard. I imparted a small amount of Navy information to them as we stood outside the Executive Officers office (and liberty chit window). I explained to them what liberty chits were and what liberty was, in general.

Lastly, as I walked the teak decks, looked at the massive armament, the huge anchors, and the launch areas for the seaplanes at the stern of the battleship, the submariner in me came out, and all I could think was what a big, noisy target the USS North Carolina would be!

Hand salute:

I could certainly appreciate the bravery those sailors showed as the confronted the Japanese military during WWII, and it brought me back to my own Navy days. Thanks to all who served aboard USS North Carolina (BB-55) and the current USS North Carolina (SSN-777)! Bravo Zulu!!

Have you visited any Navy ship memorials like USS North Carolina? How about USS Nautilus in Groton, CT? What about other military memorials? Leave me a comment and let me know!

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Connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads, or just drop me an email at bill@williamlstuart.com. New friends are always welcome! And, just so you won’t miss a post, subscribe to the blog!